A fundamental question in regard to the Madoff scandal is whether there was any reasonable means by which the typical investor and/or their consultants could have determined that the various investment vehicles by which investors accessed Madoff were in fact not offering what they claimed. In...

Using data from January 18, 1996 to March 31, 2011, we construct and evaluate returns on a buy-write strategy on the Russell 2000 index. The results demonstrate that the strategy has consistently outperformed the Russell 2000 index on a risk adjusted basis, when implemented with one month to...

The hedge funds industry has evolved tremendously in recent years. According to the CASAM CISDM Industry Report, assets under management in hedge funds had grown from less than USD 50 billion at the end of 1990 to over USD 2.1 trillion at the end of 2007. However, assets managed by hedge funds...

In 2008, the S&P 500 experienced a drawdown of about 50% from peak to trough. Many assets which are typically considered effective equity diversifiers also faced precipitous losses. In stark contrast, volatility levels as measured by VIX experienced significant increases and in 2008 repeatedly...

The term structure of VIX futures is generally upward sloping. The persistent VIX contango may result in abnormally strong performance for VIX futures selling or VIX call writing strategies. However, the high volatility of volatility and significant jump risk may expose short uncovered VIX...

Mutual fund managers may implement a variety of trading strategies using exchange-traded equity and equity index options. These strategies predominately include covered calls, where call options are sold against long positions, and put writes, where put options are sold against cash collateral....