Larry,
I was reading an article on Marc Faber's website where he points to low volatility saying that now would be a good time to 'buy the VIX'. How would one buy the VIX, I thought it was a made up construct that was reported rather than something that is traded.
h

Howard,

There are VIX futures traded on the CBOE.

Larry

But no way for those of us with just a stock brokerage account to buy, right?
h

That appears to be the case, Howard.

Larry

I work at an options trading firm and I've been trying to open up a vix futures account for a month and my clearing firm can't figure out how. Not only that, I can't get a vix futures quote because they are disseminated through either of the quote servers we use. Anyway, you could buy vix calls if you wanted to considering if they get any cheaper it'd be like buying the vix future.

So are the options available through the same stock brockerage account I buy stocks in? If so, what's the 3 letter code. If it's VIX, feel free to say, duh!!!
h

Probably, except for the leaps.