Chapter 1 An Empirical Exploration of the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) Futures Market as a Hedge for Equity Market and Hedge Fund Investors

Because VIX has a negative correlation to the S&P 500 index and a number of hedge fund strategies, the literature has suggested that long positions in VIX can reduce the risk and higher moment exposures of these investments. However, the VIX index is not tradeable. VIX futures are traded, but have materially different performance from the VIX index. The front month futures underperformed by over 4% per month between March 2004 and July 2009. Over this time period, the front month futures had a correlation of 0.84 to, and a volatility 60% of that of, the VIX index. The second month futures contract underperformed by almost 1% per month with a correlation of 0.76 and a standard deviation of only 40% of the VIX index. While a significant negative risk premium exists in VIX futures, the attractive positive skewness and excess kurtosis properties of the futures are similar to those of the index. Both VIX futures and the VIX index are asymmetric, rising more quickly as the S&P 500 index falls and falling more slowly as stock prices rise.