Top Posts of 2012

Every year I tabulate the most-read posts in this space as I find this exercise to be an excellent way to identify the issues that readers are interested in and also to see how these issues evolve over time. These most-read posts also serve as easily accessible repositories of high-quality material for the benefit of new readers and long-term readers alike.

While 2012 was a slow year for the VIX (the first time the VIX didn’t make it into the 30s since 2007), it proved to be an exciting time for the broader volatility products space. Looking just at the titles of the top 25 posts below, an astonishing 9 of them reference TVIX or UVXY in the title, reflecting strong reader interest in the +2x volatility products that I called “day trading rocket fuel” back in January 2011.

The posts below represent those that have been read by the highest number of unique readers in 2012. Farther down there are links to similar lists going back to 2008, along with several other “best of” type posts that I have flagged for archival purposes.  Don’t necessarily start at the top and work your way down until you get bored.  For the record, I think #25, Volatility During Crises is one of the top two posts of the year.  I’m not sure about #1, but Cheating with Partial Hedges, which didn’t even make this top 25 list, also has to be considered a strong candidate.

Last but not least, each year I also attach the hall of fame label to a handful of posts that I believe have particularly compelling and/or original content, regardless of readership.

Happy New Year!

• Will TVIX Go To Zero?
• Volatility Becomes Unhinged on Friday
• A Million SPX Contracts Traded Today…A Contrarian Timing Signal
• Four Key Drivers of the Price of TVIX
• All About UVXY
• Credit Suisse Suspends Creation Units in TVIX: What It Means
• Who Is Trading TVIX?
• Chart of the Week: VIX Reversal Signal Coming Soon?
• A VIX of 15!?! Meet the New Reality
• Natural Gas, Contango and UNG
• Third Steepest First-Second Month VIX Futures Contango Ever
• What the VIX Kitchen Sink Chart Says
• How Can the VIX Be 14 and Lower than VIN and VIF?
• Dynamic VIX ETPs as Long-Term Hedges
• VXX Options Calm After Second Highest Volume Day Ever
• Crazy VIX:VXV Ratio Chart
• Implications of a Positively Correlated SPX and VIX
• TVIX Premium to Indicative Value Creeping Back Up
• A VIX Risk Reversal
• TVIX Creation Units Return; What It Means for Investors
• Is TVIX Now Just a More Docile UVXY?
• Options on UVXY and SPXY Open Up New VIX ETP Trading Approaches
• How High Might the VIX Spike?
• The VIX-VXX Minotaur Trade
• Volatility During Crises

Related posts:

• Top Posts of 2011
• Top Posts of 2010
• Top Posts of 2009
• Top Posts of 2008
• One Year Blogiversary! (includes top 25 posts of 2007)
• The 1000^th Post
• Five Years of VIX and More
• The Post of the Month: An Informal History of VIX and More

Disclosure(s): short UVXY at time of writing