Market volatility has fallen markedly as measured by the CBOE Volatility (VIX) Index. VIX is a real-time index that represents the market expectation for near-term volatility in the S&P500 index.

Investors and traders have long used VIX as a measure of the level of risk, fear or stress in the market.

Today, we’re going to look at a long call butterfly using VIX options as a way to profit if volatility jumps up again in the next few weeks.

A long call butterfly is constructed through buying a call option, selling two higher calls and buying one call even higher.

The trade is entered for a net debit meaning the trader pays to enter the trade. This debit is also the maximum possible loss.

Usually, a butterfly is placed roughly at-the-money, but today we are looking at placing it out-of-the-money.

Using the May 16 expiry, the trade would involve buying the 20 strike call, selling two of the 25 strike calls and buying one of the 30 strike calls.

The cost for the trade would be around $40-45 which is the most the trade could lose. The maximum potential gain is $460, which would occur is VIX closed right at 25 at expiration. The lower breakeven price is 20.50 and the upper breakeven price is 29.50.

There are three general outcomes with this butterfly.

• VIX below 20.50 – Trade loses $45. This scenario should be reasonably acceptable for most investors. While the option trade suffers a full loss, hopefully stocks have been stable or rising.
• VIX between 20.50 and 29.50 – Good for the VIX butterfly, but potentially bad for stock portfolios.
• VIX above 29.50 – Full loss on the VIX trade and potentially big drops in stock portfolio.

So, VIX above 30 is the main scenario that hurts in this case, but how likely is that? We’ve only seen a VIX reading of above 30 on a handful of days in the last six months.

Using VIX options can be simple and cheap way to buy some protection against a mild selloff in stocks between now and mid-May. The trade can be placed relatively cheaply at $40-45 per contract.

VIX options behave differently to regular stock options, so it is important that any trader using this product fully understands the risks involved. As always, do your own research and due diligence before risking any of your hard-earned capital.

Please remember that options are risky, and investors can lose 100% of their investment. This article is for education purposes only and not a trade recommendation. Remember to always do your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

To help battle against the multi-trillion-dollar financial crime industry, firms themselves take steps toward solving the problem. One way organizations have responded is by expanding their “Know Your Customer” (KYC) efforts.

KYC references a set of guidelines that financial institutions and businesses follow to verify the identity, suitability, and risks of a current or potential customer. The goal is to identify suspicious behavior such as money laundering and financial terrorism before it ever materializes.

KYC regulations originated from years of unchecked financial crimes. The initial guidelines were drafted in 1970 when the U.S. passed the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to prevent money laundering. Notable additions came years later, after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and 2008 global financial crisis.

The regulations put in place over the years have required firms to monitor client behavior regularly. And there is no exception for not complying. Any company—including banks, insurance companies, and creditors—with exposure to client risk must develop a KYC strategy for engaging with customers.

What are the requirements to “Know Your Customer”?

The “Know Your Customer” framework contains three steps: customer identification program (CIP), customer due diligence (CDD) and enhanced due diligence (EDD).

Customer Identification Program

At the minimum, firms must pull four pieces of identifying information about a client, including name, date of birth, address, and identification number.

Most firms take additional steps in their screening process. Many will make sure that clients do not appear on government sanction lists, politically exposed person (PEP) lists, or known terrorism lists— those who do appear usually require enhanced due diligence.

Other items considered at this time include financial transactions, which firms use to separate potentially risky behavior from regular business activity.

Much of this information comes from various reporting agencies, public databases and third-party sources.

Customer Due Diligence (CDD)

Customer due diligence is the process of classifying all the information collected during the Customer Identification Program.

Firms examine the nature and beneficiaries of existing relationships to ensure all activity is consistent with historical customer information.

The goal is to obtain enough information to verify a customer’s identity and assess their riskiness. Since financial crime happens quickly, firms frequently monitor this information for unusual spikes in activity or changes to sanction lists. Most clients pose little to no risk, but the few who do are subject to enhanced due diligence.

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)

If a customer is believed to pose additional risks, firms take extra steps to gain a better understanding of their motivations. A high-risk person may include those with political exposure or relationships with designated persons. Even someone in a high-risk country can raise a red flag for compliance.

In practice, firms must demonstrate a deeper understanding of the high-risk clients identified by a standard customer due diligence program. Some of the information required to perform enhanced due diligence includes a source of wealth verification, detailed management reports and relevant third-party research.

As web3 and blockchain become more widespread, new acronyms, such as dao, are bandied around regularly with little clarification as to what they imply.

With auto-staking, auto-compounding, and the busd reflection from tax, a decentralized autonomous organization and decentralized finance introducing infinio.finance

A new and unique financial system that combines staking and compounding with the current generation of technology with infinio unique technology, making it more efficient and rewarding infinio token holders with the steadiest returns in crypto, is being developed.

Aims and objectives of the infinio.

To support its pricing busd reflection and the rebase reward system, the iasrp relies on a unique and complicated collection of technologies, factors, and development. Every five minutes, the infinio protection fund (IPF) is paid to all infinio token holders to ensure price stability and long-term viability of the infinio protocol by keeping the 0.02355 percent rebase rate constant for all infinio tokens holders.

The infinio development team has coordinated each of these components to ensure a smooth operation. As a result  infinio holders now have a new and improved staking and rewarding system.

Peculiarities of the infinio.

Holders of infinio tokens gain from the defi innovation that infinio focuses on as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The infinio token’s iasrp protocol provides unique benefits to its owners:

Easy and safe staking; your wallet holds the infinio token, removing the requirement for it to be held by a third party or central authority. Because the benefits are promptly credited to your wallet, there’s no need to engage in extra time-consuming staking activities.

Interest yield with automatic payments; you don’t have to worry about re-staking tokens. You never have to worry about missing a payment because interest is paid and compounded in your wallet.

Safest fixed APY; there has never been anything like infinio in the defi space that pays out 383,025.80% in the first 12 months. After the first year, the interest rate falls over a predetermined long-term interest cycle.

Auto token burn: the infinio protocol contains an automatic token burn system that sends 2% of the transaction value into a public dead wallet. Neither the team nor anyone from other people has access to it to prevent the circulating supply from becoming unmanageable. The automatic burn mechanism taxes each transaction with 2% of all infinio token market sales, which are then burned.

Infinio protection fund (ipf); the infinio protection fund (IPF) is a stand-alone element of the infinio iasrp system that safeguards investors’ funds. For the ipf, the algorithm that backs the rebase reward is supported by a percentage of the ipf buy and sell trading costs.

Ipf keeps holders safe by:

• Flash crash avoidance via pricing stability
• Maintaining the infinio protocol’s long-term viability and growth
• Minimizing the potential for a loss
• Protection for users up to $2500 with infinio anti-rug.

Infinio auto token burn (IATB)

2% of all infinio token transactions are sent to a public dead wallet for safekeeping. To keep the infinio protocol stable, the number of coins in circulation must be reduced via trading, which causes the public dead wallet to become larger and larger by self-fulfilling auto-compounding.

The deflationary feature of an endless burn of circulating supply means that each infinio token has a higher value, increasing its overall worth.

Tokenomics

• Infino’s initial supply is 100,000, and the maximum supply is 100,000,000.
• The infinio team will hold no tokens. The treasury’s sole tokens will be accumulated through trading fees. Because we are committed to the project’s long-term viability, the infinio team cannot abandon you.
• The infinio smart contract’s blacklist feature will immediately prevent all front-running and sniper bots. To avoid regular wallets from being blocked, we use a smart contract.
• The supply of infinio coins cannot be artificially increased or changed by issuing ourselves free tokens via the infinio smart contract. Only 100,000 tokens are available at launch.