Variance Swap

Variance Swap is a bet on variance of some base asset. This is a swap contract, meaning that two sides agree on exchanging certain cash flows, one side pays a fixed amount in exchange of some uncertain amount based on the realized variance of some base asset.

A variance swap is a convenient way of hedging your vega risk or making profit if your estimation of future realized volatility is better than the market consensus.

The payoff of a variance swap can be roughly replicated with a portfolio of call or put options with weights proportional to inverse square of the strike price. As an example in this study the portfolio consists of long positions in one month puts with strikes of 7, 8, 9 and one month calls with strike prices of 10, 11, 12, 13 and the volume of each position is exactly 100 / strike² (e.g., for 9 put the amount is 100 / (9²) = 100 / 81 = 1.2345). As you can see, the vega graph is flat above 8 and below 11, meaning the price of the portfolio will respond linearly to changes in the volatility.

Want to learn more? Download now an interactive reference application for iPhone.

The screenshot shows the following portfolio:

This is an excerpt from iOptioneer option trading reference application. In order to build the real-time dynamic strategy graph and run simulations you will need to download the application from App Store.