Is It Possible To Buy An Options Calendar Spread For Zero Cost?
The article explains that a zero‑cost options calendar spread is not feasible because the longer‑dated leg always carries more extrinsic value, resulting in a net debit. Using a Kimberly‑Clark put‑calendar example, the spread costs $20 (0.20 per share). Even with higher implied volatility on the short leg or temporary bid‑ask cross, true zero cost cannot be achieved. The piece also covers liquidity, legging, and the reward‑to‑risk implications of low‑cost calendars.
RFR Adoption in Cleared Rates Swaps – 2025 Update
The 2025 cleared rates‑swap data show that just over 62% of the $1,076 trillion notional is tied to risk‑free rate (RFR) indexes, leaving a 38% minority still anchored to legacy IBORs. Major currencies such as GBP, JPY and CAD have largely...
Nasdaq Eyes Prediction Markets With SEC Filing
Nasdaq has submitted an SEC filing to list Outcome Related Options, binary contracts priced between one cent and one dollar that let traders bet on yes‑no outcomes. The first products would track the Nasdaq 100 and its micro version, offering all‑or‑nothing...
The Dollar Is the Only Game in Town
The U.S. dollar is strengthening across major G10 pairs as the Middle East conflict fuels risk aversion, pushing the euro, yen, and sterling lower. Emerging market currencies such as the peso, yuan and real also slide, while equity markets suffer...
Tidan Deepens Volatility Arbitrage Expertise
Tidan Capital has appointed Laurent Keller as Senior Portfolio Manager, bolstering its volatility and options arbitrage platform. Keller brings over a decade of quantitative experience in equity volatility relative‑value, dispersion and correlation strategies from a large Swiss institutional investor. He...
Sugar’s Bounce Has a Problem: The Surplus Story Has Not Moved
White sugar prices barely moved in May 2026, closing at $407.7/tonne, as futures steadied above $400 after a five‑year low. Despite the tactical bounce, surplus projections for 2025/26 and 2026/27 dominate market sentiment, limiting upside. Brazil’s modest output dip and...
A First in Fintech: The AI-Native Options Intelligence API
Trading Volatility launched an AI‑native options intelligence API, the first of its kind in fintech. The service delivers derived market‑structure data—gamma levels, regime diagnostics, call pressure, skew and IV metrics—in deterministic, agent‑readable schemas. Built for machine consumption, it lets large...
The Market Brief
U.S. equity markets opened with a sharp selloff, pulling the S&P 500 and Nasdaq toward monthly losses while the Dow remains on track for a February gain. Despite the decline, about 70% of S&P constituents closed higher, indicating broad participation....
CME Goes Down Again, While Tariff Lawsuits Pile Onto Market Volatility
Gold and silver futures edged lower on Thursday, with gold slipping $10 to $5,217 per ounce and silver dropping $2.13 to $88.86. The market is nearing the March COMEX delivery cycle, but most contracts have been rolled over, easing immediate...
Options Policework
A Moontower Discord user reported a sharp price shock in the VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF on Jan 2, which led to a rapid loss in their options position. The trader suspects the loss was driven by gamma exposure as the...
Integrating Fundamental Metrics Into Pairs Trading
The paper proposes a novel pairs‑trading framework that blends fundamental metrics—such as ROE, sales growth, leverage, geographic proximity, and industry alignment—with traditional statistical measures. Each factor receives a regression‑derived weight, forming a composite score for pair selection. Back‑testing shows the...
The New 1 Oz Gold Futures Are Catching On
CME Group introduced a 1‑ounce gold futures contract in January 2025, expanding its COMEX product suite. Daily trading volume has risen steadily, with a pronounced uptick since September, indicating growing market acceptance. The contract’s performance contrasts with many new derivatives...
Silver Breaks Back Over $90, AS Metal Continues To Leave The Comex
Silver futures surged past $90 per ounce, marking a significant rebound after recent sell‑offs. Gold futures also climbed, adding $47 to reach $5,224 per ounce. The rally suggests a new potential trading range for silver between $60 and $120, moving...
Consus Ag Consulting Afternoon Wrap Up
Futures opened narrowly mixed as traders focused on month‑end positioning, with limited fresh news and low volume. In South America, Brazil soybean quality is slipping due to excess moisture, raising concerns for both soy and upcoming corn crops. Meanwhile, wildfires...
How ‘Doomers And Boomers’ Took Over US Equity Options
The piece observes that retail investors—dubbed “doomers” for their bearish outlook and “boomers” for their age‑group—now dominate US equity options trading. Their surge has swollen overall volume, steepened put‑call skews and forced market makers to reassess risk models. The author...
CFTC Taps Ex-Prosecutor, ‘Billions’ Adviser for Enforcement
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that David Miller will become its enforcement director on March 2, succeeding a period of heightened scrutiny over derivatives trading. Miller, a former federal prosecutor, has spent the last several years as a...
2025 Swaption Volumes and Market Shares
The 2025 full‑year swaption market reached a record $24.1 trillion in notional volume, a 35 % increase over 2023, while trade counts remained flat, indicating larger average deal sizes. Average trade size jumped 36 % to $150 million, driven partly by reporting‑cap hikes introduced...
Earnings Options Trades With SpotGamma
SpotGamma outlines a systematic approach to trading earnings options, using implied‑move and volatility metrics. For CRM and NVDA, implied moves are 8% and 5% respectively, with CRM showing a high IV rank of +90 indicating expensive options. The platform projects...
Make a Fortune in the Next Market Crash with Long Volatility
The article promotes a free trial for Volatility Trading Strategies (VTS), urging investors to profit from the next market crash by adopting long‑volatility positions. It highlights that volatility spikes, like those seen after the 2018 "Volpocalypse," can generate outsized returns...
How To Use Strata: The Structured Yield Protocol Paying Double Digit Returns
Strata, launched on Ethereum in October 2025, is a structured yield protocol that tokenizes a shared collateral pool into senior and junior tranches. The senior tranche offers over‑collateralized, lower‑risk returns, while the junior tranche absorbs volatility for amplified yields that now...
Do Options Exhibit Momentum?
Recent academic papers reveal that options exhibit robust momentum effects across both monthly and intraday horizons. A 2022 study of delta‑neutral straddles finds that options with strong 6‑36‑month past returns generate superior subsequent returns, with lower risk than traditional short...
The Coffee Reset: From Scarcity to Comfort
The episode breaks down the recent slide in ICE Coffee C futures, highlighting how a projected record Brazilian harvest of 66.2 million bags is driving bearish sentiment despite near‑term export tightness. Vietnam’s robusta surge and rebuilding inventories in both arabica...
CoT: Peek Into Future Through Futures, How Hedge Funds Are Positioned
Hedge funds have deepened their net short position in 10‑year Treasury futures, pushing the short to 877.9k contracts and driving the 10‑year yield up to 4.09% after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s blanket tariffs. At the same time, the...
Extreme VIX: Regime Shifts and Return Predictability
The episode examines research on extreme VIX spikes (VIX > 45) and their predictive power for equity returns. Using U.S. data from 2008‑2025, the authors find that such spikes generate significant positive returns over a three‑month horizon, offering a contrarian signal, while...
Consus Ag Consulting Afternoon Wrap Up
The episode reviews the overnight futures market, noting mixed grain movements and modest profit taking in soybeans. A pivotal moment came when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that President Trump’s tariffs were invalid because only Congress...
Pairs Trading Using the Hurst Exponent of Product
The episode explores a novel pairs‑trading technique that uses the Hurst exponent of the product (HP) to gauge the co‑movement of two asset price series. It explains how HP differentiates between low, moderate, and high correlation—values near 0.5 indicate weak...
The Bias of Hedging on Implied Delta
In this episode the host dives into the often‑overlooked importance of delta, arguing that "delta is god" and exploring how mis‑estimating implied volatility when delta‑hedging can bias P&L. Three lenses are offered: a pure quant perspective, a trader‑focused quant view,...
🛞 Covered Call Trade Management
In this episode the host reviews a recent earnings event and observes that the stock is stabilizing, hinting at potential upward momentum. To capitalize on this, they outline a covered‑call strategy that generates upfront premium, reduces the effective cost basis,...
Navigating February OPEX: Fixed Expiration Day: Key Market Levels, Volatility Dynamics, and Single Stock Opportunities for Traders
SpotGamma’s February OPEX briefing outlines the fixed‑expiration day’s critical market levels, volatility shifts, and actionable single‑stock ideas for options traders. The analysis pinpoints key support and resistance zones across the S&P 500, highlights a projected VIX dip to 17‑18, and flags...
The Market Brief
The episode reviews the latest market dynamics, highlighting the impact of the FOMC meeting minutes and ongoing liquidity constraints that are driving sharp intraday swings. It notes a shift from AI‑driven equity rallies to caution, as investors weigh disruption risks...
2025 Rates ETD Exchange and CCP Competition
In 2025 the rates ETD market saw genuine competition only in EUR and JPY money‑market futures, while other currency‑product combos remain largely monopolised by a single CCP. Eurex lifted its share to 14.7% of EUR MM futures, taking volume from...
Volume Effects in Pairs Trading Performance
The episode examines a recent study that integrates trading volume into pairs‑trading strategies for S&P 500 stocks, using cointegration over data from 2005‑2024. The key finding is that high‑volume pairs consistently outperform low‑volume pairs across return, risk, and convergence metrics, and...
Gold & Silver Prices Crash Again - But Is Rally Finally Over?
The episode reviews the latest sharp declines in gold and silver futures, noting gold down $170 to $4,876 and silver down $5.71 to $72.26. Despite the sell‑offs, the hosts emphasize that both metals are still up dramatically year‑over‑year—gold nearly $2,000...
Cotton’s Technical Lift Meets Demand Restraint
ICE March 2026 cotton futures rose modestly to 62.11 cents per pound, driven primarily by short covering and technical repositioning rather than fresh demand. Export sales and mill buying remained cautious, indicating muted underlying demand despite a relatively firm US...
States Encroach on Prediction Markets – WSJ
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has long regulated prediction markets, but a wave of state lawsuits is challenging its authority. Nearly 50 cases across the U.S. allege that event contracts offered by platforms like Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase and Crypto.com...
QQQ Is Hedging Hard, But Not Panicking
The episode dissects the current QQQ options market, highlighting that skew and risk reversals are at historic highs, indicating expensive downside protection and a defensive bias among investors. Despite heavy put activity, call participation remains steady and speculative far‑out‑of‑the‑money buying...
Gold & Silver Rebound, And A Look Inside The Indian Silver Market
The episode reviews the recent rebound in gold and silver prices, with gold back above $5,000 per ounce and silver futures climbing to $77.89. It delves into the Indian silver market, highlighting rapid price spikes, profit‑taking, and a sharp correction...
State-Dependent Correlation Between the S&P 500 and the VIX
The episode examines how the correlation between the S&P 500 and the VIX is not static but varies across four distinct market regimes defined by levels of volatility (VOL) and volatility‑of‑volatility (VOV) risk. The authors propose a regime‑switching model that shows...
From Text ➡️ Dashboards
In this episode the host shares resources for both learners and active traders, highlighting the free CME Trading Simulator and educational posts on implied forwards and Jensen's inequality. The main focus is on using AI tools to transform textual insights...
Multifractality and Its Underlying Drivers in Cryptocurrency Markets
The episode delves into a recent study examining multifractality in major cryptocurrency markets, revealing that the complex scaling behavior of assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, DEX tokens, and NFTs is driven chiefly by long-range temporal correlations rather than merely heavy‑tailed return...
Income Investing Beyond Dividends: Incorporating Options Into Your 2026 Yield Plan
The episode explores how income investing has shifted from relying solely on dividends to incorporating options strategies like covered calls and cash‑secured puts to generate cash flow, especially from non‑dividend‑paying growth stocks. It explains the mechanics of these strategies, their...
Herding in Commodities and Cryptocurrencies
This episode explores herding behavior beyond equities, focusing on cryptocurrency markets during geopolitical shocks and commodity ETFs across different asset classes and time scales. Recent research shows strong, asymmetric herding in crypto—especially in bearish periods and when perceived geopolitical risk...
Volatility Feedback Loop in the VIX Index and Its Derivatives
The episode delves into the dynamics between the VIX spot index, VIX futures, and the implied volatility of VIX options, highlighting a unidirectional causality chain where spot VIX leads futures, which in turn lead option volatility. High‑frequency analysis shows that...
Consus Ag Consulting Afternoon Wrap Up
The episode reviews the mixed early‑trade futures landscape, noting grain prices slipping while soybeans rose on expectations of sustained demand despite uncertain Chinese imports. It highlights Brazil's soybean dynamics—rising harvests but limited exports due to domestic crusher buying and a...
The Long Volatility Premium: Short the Market, Get Paid?
Patrick Kazley’s new paper argues that the apparent drag from buying put options is largely a hidden short‑beta exposure, not an inherent cost of long volatility. By neutralizing this beta, a pure long‑volatility factor delivers positive returns over time. The...