With persistent inflation and the aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, the stock market in 2022 experienced its most volatile year since 2009.
The S&P 500 has been on a shaky decline since January 2022, and despite a few short-lived rebounds, it was down 19.4% at the end of 2022. Intraday volatility the percentage change in share price from market open to market close averaged 1.84% in 2022, compared to its 40-year average of 1.3%.
Since volatility is often negatively correlated with equities when equity prices decline, volatility increases using a volatility index to hedge portfolios with profitable trades based on volatility assumptions is becoming an increasingly popular way for investors to make lemonade out of lemons and turn market swings into profitable trades. To make this kind of volatility trading strategy accessible to more investors, MIAX, a technology-driven leader that builds and operates regulated exchanges, is developing a portfolio of trading products based on the SPIKES Volatility Index (SPIKE).
What the SPIKES Index does differently and why that matters
MIAX collaborated with T3 Index to create products based on the SPIKES Index. The SPIKES Index is intended to provide an improved measure of equity market volatility and act as an alternative to the Chicago Board Options Exchanges Volatility Index (VIX). The SPIKES Volatility Index tracks SPY options to measure the expected 30-day volatility in the SPDR S&P 500 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), the most actively traded ETF in the world.
By tracking SPY options rather than the SPX options, with the latter used by VIX, and by pulling pricing data from all 16 U.S. options exchanges rather than just the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), SPIKES seeks more accurate, real-time pricing data to use as a basis for its volatility measure. Its proprietary price-dragging technique for capturing live options prices also aims to offer more precise and stable index movements by using the pricing data from actual trades rather than approximating prices based on the midpoint of the bid-ask spread of the options.
These methodology features and the fact that it updates every 100 milliseconds rather than every 15 seconds are among the key reasons MIAX built its ecosystem of volatility trading products around the SPIKES Index.
SPIKES Options and Futures
While investors cannot invest directly in the SPIKES Index, MIAX offers a portfolio of products based on the index that traders can use to trade their volatility assumptions. The SPIKES options and futures offered by MIAX, turn volatility into a tradeable asset class.
Trading in penny increments since October 1, 2022, SPIKES Options and Futures are designed to be more cost-efficient by offering the potential for reduced trading costs, tighter bid/ask spreads and improved execution prices.
Investors feeling anxious about current market conditions can use SPIKES Options (SPIKE) for downside protection by buying call options that could increase in value in the event of a market decline. In futures trading, investors can hedge their positions with SPIKES Futures (SPK): when taking a long position in S&P futures, they can buy long SPIKES Futures to hedge against potential losses since the volatility index is negatively correlated with the market.
Investors, however, are not limited to hedging strategies. SPIKES Futures can also be used to trade term structure. Term structure refers to the relationship between implied volatility and time to expiration in futures contracts. If futures prices are trending up, an upward-sloping term structure suggests that volatility is currently lower than its anticipated to be in the future. If futures prices are trending down, a downward-sloping term structure suggests volatility is currently higher than its anticipated to be in the future.
For traders, then, a basic term structure strategy is to buy futures during downward slopes (when expected future volatility is lower) and sell (or short) them during upward slopes (when expected future volatility is higher).
SPIKES Volatility ETFs
The latest addition to the SPIKES ecosystem, Convexity Shares 1x SPIKES Futures ETF (SPKX) and Convexity Shares Daily 1.5x SPIKES Futures ETF (SPKY), launched on August 16, 2022.
Intended as an alternative way for traders to hedge or capitalize on volatility, the SPKX and SPKY seek to match the performance of the SPIKE Front 2 Futures Index, which tracks the returns from a daily rolling long position in the SPIKES Futures contracts traded on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX).
This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. The information contained in this document is the proprietary information of Miami International Holdings, Inc. (MIH), however its accuracy and completeness is not expressly nor implicitly guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The information in this document is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for financial or legal advice. The information herein is presented as is and without representations or warranties of any kind. MIH shall not be liable for loss or damage, direct, indirect or consequential, arising from any use of this information. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person must receive a copy of Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Copies are available from your broker, by calling 1-888-OPTIONS or from The Options Clearing Corporation at www.theocc.com. No statement within this document should be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell a security or futures contract or to provide investment advice.
After yesterday’s royal welcome from the King, French President Emmanuel Macron will get down to business today, meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for lunch, after PMQs.
But, as Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss on this episode, away from the pomp, Sir Keir’s in-tray doesn’t look any less challenging.
It includes a headache for Health Secretary Wes Streeting as resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, announce a new strike – and there is as a punchy warning from the OBR on making financial promises to the public.
Also today, the welfare bill returns to the House of Commons, with reports of another rebellion brewing.
While the politicians talk, so many people come from around the world to try to get across the Channel on small boats. But why?
Why make such a perilous crossing to try to get to a country that seems to be getting increasingly hostile to asylum seekers?
As the British and French leaders meet, with small boats at the forefront of their agenda, we came to northern France to get some answers.
It is not a new question, but it is peppered with fresh relevance.
Over the course of a morning spent around a migrant camp in Dunkirk, we meet migrantsfrom Gaza, Iraq, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Some are fearful, waving us away; some are happy to talk. Very few are comfortable to be filmed.
All but one man – who says he’s come to the wrong place and actually wants to claim asylum in Paris – are intent on reaching Britain.
They see the calm seas, feel the light winds – perfect conditions for small boat crossings.
John has come here from South Sudan. He tells me he’s now 18 years old. He left his war-torn home nation just before his 16th birthday. He feels that reaching Britain is his destiny.
“England is my dream country,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was at school. It’s the country that colonised us and when I get there, I will feel like I am home.
“In England, they can give me an opportunity to succeed or to do whatever I need to do in my life. I feel like I am an English child, who was born in Africa.”
Image: ‘England is my dream country,’ John tells Adam Parsons
He says he would like to make a career in England, either as a journalist or in human resources, and, like many others we meet, is at pains to insist he will work hard.
The boat crossing is waved away as little more than an inconvenience – a trifle compared with the previous hardships of his journey towards Britain.
We meet a group of men who have all travelled from Gaza, intent on starting new lives in Britain and then bringing their families over to join them.
One man, who left Gaza two years ago, tells me that his son has since been shot in the leg “but there is no hospital for him to go to”.
Next to him, a man called Abdullah says he entered Europe through Greece and stayed there for months on end, but was told the Greek authorities would never allow him to bring over his family.
Britain, he thinks, will be more accommodating. “Gaza is being destroyed – we need help,” he says.
Image: Abdullah says ‘Gaza is being destroyed – we need help’
A man from Eritreatells us he is escaping a failing country and has friends in Britain – he plans to become a bicycle courier in either London or Manchester.
He can’t stay in France, he says, because he doesn’t speak French. The English language is presented as a huge draw for many of the people we talk to, just as it had been during similar conversations over the course of many years.
I ask many of these people why they don’t want to stay in France, or another safe European country.
Some repeat that they cannot speak the language and feel ostracised. Another says that he tried, and failed, to get a residency permit in both France and Belgium.
But this is also, clearly, a flawed survey. Last year, five times as many people sought asylum in France as in Britain.
And French critics have long insisted that Britain, a country without a European-style ID card system, makes itself attractive to migrants who can “disappear”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:48
Migrant Channel crossings hit new record
A young man from Iraq, with absolutely perfect English, comes for a chat. He oozes confidence and a certain amount of mischief.
It has taken him only seven days to get from Iraq to Dunkirk; when I ask how he has made the trip so quickly, he shrugs. “Money talks”.
He looks around him. “Let me tell you – all of these people you see around you will be getting to Britain and the first job they get will be in the black market, so they won’t be paying any tax.
“Back in the day in Britain, they used to welcome immigrants very well, but these days I don’t think they want to, because there’s too many of them coming by boat. Every day it’s about seven or 800 people. That’s too many people.”
“But,” I ask, “if those people are a problem – then what makes you different? Aren’t you a problem too?”
He shakes his head emphatically. “I know that I’m a very good guy. And I won’t be a problem. I’ll only stay in Britain for a few years and then I’ll leave again.”
A man from Sri Lanka says he “will feel safe” when he gets to Britain; a tall, smiling man from Ethiopia echoes the sentiment: “We are not safe in our home country so we have come all this way,” he says. “We want to work, to be part of Britain.”
Emmanuel is another from South Sudan – thoughtful and eloquent. He left his country five years ago – “at the start of COVID” – and has not seen his children in all that time. His aim is to start a new life in Britain, and then to bring his family to join him.
He is a trained electrical engineer, but says he could also work as a lorry driver. He is adamant that Britain has a responsibility to the people of its former colony.
Follow The World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Axiom 4 mission’s crewmates began conducting biomedical research aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. Expedition 73 and Ax-4 crews found electrical muscle stimulation and cellular immunity. The Cargo transfers and exercise gear maintenance take a day for orbital residents.
Takuya Onishi, Situation Commander from JAXA( Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), has begun the shift in continuation of his space biology studies. His blood and saliva samples are being collected for storage and processing. Further, he spun the specimens in a centrifuge and placed the blood samples in the freezer. After that, he stowed the samples in the incubator.
JAXA’s Takuya Onishi Leads Cellular Immunity Study with Blood and Saliva Analysis
According to a report from NASA, the samples will be analysed to determine the effect of microgravity on cellular immunity, observe stress-related immune reactions, and learn about how to treat symptoms of immunity. The flight engineers Johnny Kim, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers spent their day on orbital lab maintenance and further support activities of the crew. Kim focused mainly on orbital plumbing as he replaced and drained the Tranquillity module.
Ayers checked cables and power components in the Destiny laboratory module and deactivated and placed the microscope. McClain took the cognition test on the laptop and kept on supporting the Ax-4 crew at a time of a busy schedule.
Ax-4 Crew Explores Muscle Stimulation and Space Suit Fabric Efficiency in Microgravity
Veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson and her Ax-4 crewmates Shubhanshu Shukla, Tibor Kapu and UznaÅ„ski-WiÅ›niewski conducted numerous space investigations throughout the lab. The private scientists in their second full week on the station found out that the electrical muscle simulation escalates the space-related and muscle atrophy in space. Ax-4’s other experiments looked at suit fabrics promote thermal comfort with exercising the weightlessness, crew health and agriculture in space.
Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy worked together on the Zvezda service module, repairing and organising components on a treadmill, one of the two inside the space station, which included the COLBERT treadmill. Kirill Peskov started his day by going through the biological samples from the crewmates. At the end of his shift, he transfers water from Progress 92 cargo craft and unloads the stuffs of hardware and crew supplies.