Alex Orus is a principal at Principalium Capital based in Zurich, Switzerland. Alex is one of the most experienced traders of the volatility index, often called the VIX, having founded Blue Diamond Capital which traded the VIX starting in 2010.

 

In this conversation, we talk about risk and how many investors measure risk in a way that actually increases their risk. We then dive into the history and the structure of the VIX and its associated products and how investors can trade it to improve the performance of their portfolio.

 

There were a couple of terms Alex talked about in the interview that I wanted to introduce. Alex mentions a few times an event in February 2018. What happened was that VIX went from 13 to 37, nearly a 300% move in a day which was it’s largest percentage move in history causing large losses or large gains for traders on either side of the market.

 

We also talk about mean reversion. Mean reversion is the idea that an asset moves back to its long term average. So the VIX’s long-term historical average is around 20 so if the VIX spikes to 40, then moves back towards 20, we call that mean reversion.

 

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Alex as much as I did.