[sklut]

I feel like a lot of the comments here are about how volatility of course will go up at some point and these guys had lucky timing, or about the market in general. But there's interesting tidbits to the whole thing beyond this.

What's interesting about this fund's particular bet isn't that they we're _right_ about the market but they correctly bet that the structural ability of the ETN/ETF product to properly hedge the risk associated with the fund goals was either too difficult or in certain events literally impossible. And that a certain event (like even what most would consider right now as a regular correction) would blow up said fund. In fact, even bastard cousins of the fund that are meant to do the exact opposite thing in these conditions may also feel the same deathknell (https://finance.google.com/finance?q=xiv).

And just to look a little deeper into the bet itself... They were using options (derivatives) on a fund (a derivative) using swaps (derivatives) linked to the VIX (a derivative) which is a measure of volatility of an index (a derivative) of the S&P components.

You too can replicate these winnings by just finding a niche mis-pricing on a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a derivative!