Don’t be lulled to sleep by this market. Just because there haven’t been any real neck-snapping moves, up or down, doesn’t mean there won’t be any. Unfortunately the trade that favors a tepid market is getting more crowded by the day. What’s worse is that the investors coming in aren’t the big players, it’s mom & pop. The DailyShot details the story:
Equity Markets: Anecdotal evidence suggests that short volatility trades have made their way into the retail world. It seems that mom & pop investors are loading up on XIV – an ETN that shorts near-term VIX futures (just as bigger investors have apparently pulled out). The short vol bets have done well. The fact that it’s a derivative contract that lost over half of its value in 2015 over a couple of days doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
Read more here.