- “I bought VXX as a play on volatility. But a week went by, two weeks, and the price went down," says Robert Whaley - known as the father of the "fear index" - who is very much not a fan of VIX Short-Term Futures ETN.
- "Buying this is about the dumbest thing you could do," he says, after some prospectus digging revealed the product is more or less programmed to go to zero over time.
- Whaley - recently signed on as a partner in AccuShares Investment Management - has his own product to sell as that firm has volatility ETFs in the works. The AccuShares Spot CBOE VIX Up Shares and VIX Down Shares are theoretically designed to do a better job tracking the CBOE Volatility Index, and could launch as soon as this summer.
- ETFs: VXX, UVXY, TVIX, XIV, SVXY, VIXY, ZIV, VXZ, VIXM, CVOL, VIIX, XVZ, XXV, XVIX, TVIZ, IVOP, VIIZ
- See also: S&P Dow Jones: Whaley mistaken in criticism of VXX