VXX seems fine, in fact up unusually sharply (+18%) today considering the spot VIX is down about -7%. My guess is that there is a lot of position squaring & distortions with the VIX futures for the few ETNs like XIV, SVXY and Normura’s “Next Notes S&P 500 Inverse ETN” which is a similar ETN that trades on the Tokyo exchange. I believe those 3 are the only one’s that will lost most of all of their value. We won’t know how much XIV will pay out, if anything, for a couple of weeks but if I get 50 cents on the dollar, I’d be happy (I took some XIV home despite the official stop being hit). This is a great, but still painful, example of why diversification among positions, not just with investing but also swing trading, is essential.

Thanks. I just saw the ‘transaction’ in my account. Huge loss. I didn’t expect the ETN to blow up. Hopefully VXX is okay.

As per Credit Suisse’s website (the issuer of XIV):

Credit Suisse AG (“Credit Suisse”) today announced the event acceleration of its VelocityShares™ Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETNs (“XIV”) due to an acceleration event. The acceleration date is expected to be February 21, 2018. Since the intraday indicative value of XIV on February 5, 2018 was equal to or less than 20% of the prior day’s closing indicative value, an aceleration event has occurred. Credit Suisse expects to deliver an irrevocable call notice with respect to the event acceleration of XIV to The Depository Trust Company by no later than February 15, 2018. The date of the delivery of the irrevocable call notice, which is expected to be February 15, 2018, will constitute the accelerated valuation date, subject to postponement due to certain events

The acceleration date for XIV is expected to be February 21, 2018, which is three business days after the accelerated valuation date. On the acceleration date, investors will receive a cash payment per ETN in an amount equal to the closing indicative value of XIV on the accelerated valuation date.The last day of trading for XIV is expected to be February 20, 2018. As of the date hereof, Credit Suisse will no longer issue new units of XIV ETNs.

Randy, ugh. Please continue to keep us posted.

I edited a typo in the reply above to read that the near-term VIX futures are trading NEGATIVE (lower) so far today, which would normally cause XIV to rally. I has mistakenly typed they were positive earlier.

XIV & SVXY are basically the same type of ETN, both inverse short-term VIX futures ETN but just two different companies. Looks like they halted trading pending news. Not sure how these will play out as they (Credit Suisse) could trigger a termination event & liquidate XIV but we’ll have to see what happens later today. So far my call for a meaningful bounce today could appears that I could play out as the futures, although indicating a lower open right now (8:23am ET) have recovered quite a bit of the overnight losses & more importantly (for XIV, maybe) is that the VIX Feb futures are trading negative by about 9% right now. Again, we’ll have to see what today brings for VIX & SVXY but my guess is at best, they will be work a fraction of what they closed at last night, assuming they do resuming trading & are not liquidated.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-inverse-etfs/inverse-vix-etfs-halted-from-trading-after-heavy-losses-idUSKBN1FQ1RE?il=0