VIX Futures and ETPs: Declaring Independence from Strike Prices

The best reason to trade volatility-linked products is that their value is independent of the nominal price of the benchmark asset. If you expect S&P 500 Index volatility to be lower in the future than options are currently implying, is it not better to be able to express that view without also committing yourself to views about the price of the index?

In this article I explain what strike independence means and why it is such a desirable feature that even conservative stock investors should consider volatility products instead of only plain vanilla options.