Smart Money Flunks Out With $2 Billion of VIX Bets Unwinding
- Investors plowed cash into long-VIX securities since Feb. 11
- Fear gauge has plunged 52 percent over the same period
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Some of the most popular securities in the equity market have been at the center of some of its most misguided trades.
Consider the last six weeks, when investors poured a record $2 billion into exchange-traded notes that track volatility in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The securities, which are bought and sold like stock and appreciate when turbulence rises in the market, lost half their value during the stretch as a rebound in U.S. equities added more than $1.5 trillion to share prices.