In the last issue, we spelled out the details of the CBOE’s new volatility contracts, which are due to be listed on March 26, 2004. In this issue, we’ll spell out some strategies that every stock portfolio owner should consider – whether or not you currently trade options and/or futures. These new contracts (futures symbol: VX) are dynamic in that they will provide a hedge for you during a declining market, no matter when that decline occurs, and no matter where the market is when the decline begins. This is a vast improvement over, say, buying puts for insurance purposes. We’ll spell out the mechanics of operating such a hedging strategy, and we’ll look at some of the problems that may occur – at least as we can envision them from this vantage point in light of the fact that actual trading has not yet commenced.
