After running the analytics today, ZEGA’s traders found a new short put spread for our primary HiPOS Conservative strategy. This iteration will have a January 31st expiration which is 17 trading days away given weekends and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday the 20th. The underlying index is once again the S&P 500 and the profit target is 1%.
As we edge closer to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we’ve seen markets rally and volatility subside. Looking at the VIX Index chart above, you’ll notice that implied volatility is trading at the bottom of its 2019 range.
For clients enrolled in the ZBIG Strategies set to mature in December 2019, positions were rolled yesterday to higher levels and moved out to the year 2021. The market’s run to near all-time highs, gave us an opportunity to lock in gains and move up the buffer level.
Many advisors who utilize ZEGA’s Buffered Indexed Growth saw some movement towards the end of 2018 into short-duration high-yield vehicles.
Recently some advisors have reached out for an update around the income portion of ZEGA’s Buy and Hedge Retirement Strategy. As many of you know this strategy looks to capture around 75% of the S&P 500 Index upside while putting a floor in the equity downside around -8%.