ETF Wanderer_

Graphing Performance of Put-Write and Buy-Write

I too found the difference a bit strange. Perhaps the CBOE should come out with a paper explaining them.

The mathematical obvious reason is that the volatility of the put prices are different from the call prices (assuming the two are liquid enough that their bid-ask prices are similar).

Why I Bought Financials (Despite the Mess)

Hmmm... Mr. Feirman, UYG on July 14th for 15.65 (say at the Close) and 15.95 on Oct 3rd, 14.62 on Oct 4th today --- so you are pretty much at the same levels. I would have thought that you have been blown away by now!

Financials can be indeed a very tricky sector.

WisdomTree’s New Bundle of Joy: An Active Currency ETF

I guess, a bit late and bad timing. dollar has already broken long term descending trend lines. Some of the currencies on the list have already started to fall substantially against the dollar.

A Home Grown Emerging Market Volatility Index

Great work. I hope some from CBOE is reading this post. They just keep on creating multiple US Vol indices which are anyway highly correlated. Some emerging market Vol index products can really provide some differentiation.

New Currency ETN from Barclays

Interest on Indian rupee for a 1 yr deposit has crossed 10%, but at the same time, the currency fell around 10% in just the last few months.

I think the market is in an inflection point these days. Could be dangerous to invest in currencies with high interest rates at present. Methinks better to wait and watch.

Freddie and Fannie: Living in the Past

what most people have missed out in all the FRE and FNM debates is that the govt of China is one of the largest losers.

Fannie and Freddie Shareholders Run for the Exit

usually magazines like Barron are contrary indicators. but, the news is really dire on FNM and FRE. for all you know it might resemble enron, rather than corning or nextel etc.

Asset Class Movements: So Much for the Summer Doldrums

ECRI is as junk as it can get.

The New Oil Volatility Index: Falling Along With Crude Prices

Recent academic works seems to suggest that the negative correlation (of VIX with SPX) is due to non-normality behavior, in particular, the ability of asset prices to jump. For instance, here is a list of two papers from Journal of Finance:

(1) Eraker, Bjorn., 2004, Do Stock Prices and Volatility Jump? Reconciling Evidence from Spot and Option Prices, Journal of Finance 59, 1367-1403.

(2) Eraker, B., M. J. Johannes, and N. G. Polson, 2003, The Impact of Jumps in Returns and Volatility, Journal of Finance 53, 1269-1300.

Personally, I kind of view these papers as academic junk. Nevertheless, it is interested to see whether similar negative correlation will exist in commodities.

Too early to tell perhaps. Thanks for the interesting observation.

The Pendulum Will Swing Back to Value Stocks

i have been tracking the value-growth spread as a part of my regular work. this month should have been really good for value out-performance, with the bounce back in financials etc.

however, if you take a look at the charts of the value-growth spreads (e.g. avg earnings yield of top decile minus bottom decile), they have broken long term trend lines and appear quite negative to say.

any correction or reversal in value-growth characteristics of any stock can happen by either the price or the value measure. for instance, suppose we use earnings/price as a measure, then a stock can change from value to growth by either change in the earnings or change in the price term - and a change in the price is what is commonly called as "value trap" - more specially a lot of companies which are value companies only because their declared earnings haven't kept inline with their prices. the level of companies in possible "value trap"s are also quite extremely high at present (i am assuming that you are well versed with all these).

i agree value should outperform growth in the long run, but currently the level of value traps and the break in the trends indicate otherwise and the bounce-back in financials is good, but we will have to wait and see if it is not a dead-cat bounce (as someone else on this blog has put it).

You Mean Whirling Ben Graham?

The big question about these new indices is that what is so "Intelligent Value" about them; since as it is we already have value based ETFs, it is unlikely that these ETNs will gain much volume (unless the issuer is betting on investors to shift from ETFs to ETNs).

One Hundred 1% Days

yeah. same here. is there any relation between the measure and the index? else, if there is none, then whats the point of this article?

Double Longs: An Equity Idea in a 6% World?

roger,

you mentioned that the double long products essentially hold two futures plus t-bills. what about products where the futures are illiquid or do not exist? for instance, UYG is double long financial stocks, but I am not sure if any future exist on financial stocks. how is the product contructed in this case?

thanks

Call-Writing Closed-end Funds: Hard To Judge Future Risk/Return (BEP, FFA, IGD, JPZ, JSN, MCN, NFJ)

nice article. at some point in the future, can you do a followup on your article? also, include the historic total return and expense ratios.

thanks.

Why I Bought Financials (Despite the Mess)

fortunately, for us, we will be able to appreciate and see how your story ended. I will be bookmarking this page.

everybody knows that financials will go up someday, but not before some serious damage. question is now or after a month or after a year. you have picked the "now" trade.