CI Volatility is a trading intelligence platform focused entirely on volatility products. It provides real-time tracking, historical analysis, decay projections, backtesting, and structured courses for tickers like UVXY, UVIX, VXX, SQQQ, SPXU, SOXS, and more.
The platform is designed for traders who want data-driven tools rather than opinions.
Go to the dashboard page and enter the email address linked to your CI Volatility subscription. The system verifies your membership, and once confirmed, you get full access to all tools, courses, and data.
Your login is remembered in your browser, so you won't need to re-enter your email every time unless you clear your browser data or switch devices.
The platform tracks leveraged and inverse ETFs across volatility, equity, and commodity sectors:
Additionally, the VIX spot index, VIX futures term structure, and VX30 (the interpolated 30-day constant-maturity VIX futures level) are tracked in real time.
Some tools also allow custom ticker input beyond the default list.
Live ticker charts and most dashboard data update in real time during market hours. Analytical tools that rely on daily candle data are refreshed after market close each day.
The VIX term structure, contango readings, and VX30 also update in real time throughout the trading session.
The platform is primarily designed for desktop use. Most analytical tools, courses, and data tables are mobile-responsive and work on phones and tablets. However, the live ticker charts are not available on mobile devices due to the complexity of the charting interface. For the best experience with charts, use a desktop or laptop browser.
Yes. A dark mode toggle is available in the navigation bar on every page. Your preference is saved in the browser, so it persists across sessions and pages. Both the dashboards and all tool pages support dark mode.
Use the navigation bar at the top of any page. Clicking the "More" dropdown reveals links to all tools, courses, and both dashboards. You can switch between the Volatility Dashboard and the Natural Gas Dashboard at any time without needing to re-authenticate.
CI Volatility is available through a subscription on Substack. Once subscribed, you use the email linked to your subscription to unlock the dashboard. A single membership grants access to all dashboards, tools, courses, and data across the entire platform.
Yes. You can log in on multiple devices and browsers using the same email address. Each device stores its own session independently, so logging in on one device does not log you out of another.
Make sure you're entering the exact email address linked to your Substack subscription. Common issues include typos, using a different email than the one you subscribed with, or having a lapsed subscription.
If you've confirmed the email is correct and still can't access the platform, reach out through Substack's messaging system for support.
Sessions are stored in your browser's local storage. Clearing your browser data, using incognito/private mode, or switching browsers will reset your session. Simply re-enter your email to log back in.
The Volatility Dashboard is the central hub. It displays a live interactive chart for each tracked ticker with real-time price data, a snapshot sidebar with key metrics (current spike level, implied volatility, contango, and decay data), and the Vol Radar anomaly detection system. It also provides quick-access links to all analytical tools and courses.
The Vol Radar is the anomaly detection engine on the main dashboard. It scans the full price history of every tracked ticker on each page load and surfaces unusual conditions: ATL gaps, overdue spikes, spike level hits, pullbacks, decay acceleration, VIX structure shifts, and term structure inversions.
Each alert shows the historical data behind why it fired, so you can evaluate the signal yourself rather than taking it at face value.
Each tracked ticker (UVXY, UVIX, VXX, SQQQ, SPXU, SOXS, ZSL, BOIL) has a dedicated page with a live interactive chart. Clicking the ticker name on the dashboard or using the navigation links takes you to that ticker's page, where you can view intraday and historical price data on a full-screen chart.
Yes. The dashboard sidebar includes a download button that captures the current state of the data panel as a PNG image. This is useful for saving a quick reference or sharing current conditions with others.
A spike is a rally measured as a percentage above the ticker's all-time low (ATL). Because leveraged ETFs like UVXY constantly decay toward new lows, every significant rally is measured relative to the most recent ATL rather than from a fixed price level.
For example, if UVXY's ATL is $20 and it rallies to $30, that's a 50% spike above ATL.
This is the core metric used across most CI Volatility tools. It measures how far a ticker's current price sits above its most recent all-time low. Since leveraged ETFs like UVXY, UVIX, and VXX are structurally designed to decay over time, measuring from the ATL provides a consistent reference point regardless of reverse splits or historical price levels.
A reading of 0% means the ticker is at a new all-time low. A reading of 100% means it has doubled from its ATL.
An episode begins when a ticker crosses a specified spike threshold (e.g. 50% above ATL) and ends when the ticker sets a new all-time low. This captures the full lifecycle of each volatility event, from spike to full decay.
The tool uses intraday highs and lows (not just closing prices) to detect threshold crossings, so it captures spikes that may have been missed by close-to-close data alone.
The Spike Ladder answers the question: "If a ticker has already spiked to level X above its ATL, what is the probability that it continues to level Y before setting a new all-time low?"
For example, if UVXY is currently 50% above its ATL, the Spike Ladder can tell you historically how often it went on to reach 100%, 150%, or 200% above ATL within that same episode.
If you're long a volatility ETF during a spike, the Spike Ladder helps you set realistic exit targets. A level with a 30% hit probability means the spike reached that level only 3 out of 10 times historically. A level with 80% probability was reached 8 out of 10 times.
The tool also shows average and median days to reach each target, so you can assess whether a target is realistic within your holding timeframe.
Leveraged ETFs reset their exposure daily. This daily rebalancing creates a compounding effect that erodes value over time, especially during periods of choppy, sideways markets. This is known as "volatility drag" or "beta slippage."
For VIX-linked products like UVXY and UVIX, there's an additional source of decay: contango. When VIX futures are in contango (longer-dated contracts priced higher than near-term contracts), these products must continually sell cheap front-month futures and buy more expensive later-month futures, creating a persistent headwind.
The projections are based on historical medians and averages. They show what typically happened in the past under similar conditions. Actual outcomes can deviate significantly, especially during unusual market events.
Think of them as a data-driven baseline for position sizing and exit planning, not a prediction of what will happen.
The Backtester lets you test spike-based entry strategies. You define an entry condition (e.g. "enter short when UVXY reaches 80% above ATL"), an exit method (time-based or target-based), and the tool evaluates every historical instance that met those conditions, reporting win rate, average return, median return, max drawdown, and individual trade details.
Yes. The backtester supports both long and short directions. You can test shorting a leveraged ETF after it spikes to a specific level, then evaluate historical win rates, average returns, and drawdowns for that strategy.
Time-based exits close the position after a fixed number of trading days regardless of profit or loss. This is useful for testing simple holding period strategies.
Target-based exits close the position when either a take-profit percentage or a stop-loss percentage is hit, whichever comes first. This tests more active risk management approaches.
The Seasonality tool shows average and median monthly returns for each ticker as a color-coded heatmap. Green months historically had positive returns, red months had negative returns, with intensity reflecting magnitude.
Seasonal patterns in leveraged ETFs are influenced by quarterly rebalancing, options expiration cycles, tax-loss selling periods, and summer liquidity conditions.
Similar to Seasonality but at the daily level. It shows average and median returns for each day of the week (Monday through Friday) for every ticker. This helps fine-tune entry and exit timing based on which days historically favor a particular direction.
The Heatmap is a single-view performance matrix showing returns across all tickers and multiple timeframes simultaneously: 1-day, 1-week, 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, YTD, and 1-year. It includes benchmark ETFs like SPY and QQQ for context. This is a useful daily starting point to assess the state of the entire volatility universe at a glance.
The Sensitivity Map quantifies how UVXY, UVIX, and VXX historically respond to VIX point moves, broken down by the VIX level at the time of the move. A 2-point VIX move from 14 to 16 produces a very different ETF response than a 2-point move from 30 to 32. The tool maps this non-linear relationship across all VIX regimes.
You can also enter any two VIX closing prices to get an estimated ETF move based on the historical relationship for that regime.
Enter any number of trading days and the Outlier Finder shows you the single largest rally and largest decline ever recorded for every ticker over that exact window. It uses intraday highs and lows, not just closing prices.
This is primarily a risk calibration tool. It answers the question: "What is the absolute worst-case scenario for this ticker over N days?"
The Vol ETF Comparison page provides a side-by-side view of UVXY, UVIX, and VXX. It shows current price, seasonality data for the current and next month, average annual return (CAGR), and year-to-date performance for each product. This makes it easy to compare the three VIX-linked ETFs on a single screen.
The Options Scanner displays the full options chain for any tracked ticker, including calls and puts across all available expirations. It shows key data like bid/ask, volume, open interest, implied volatility, and the Greeks. Use it to identify opportunities or evaluate specific strike prices before placing an options trade.
Contango is when longer-dated VIX futures are priced higher than near-term futures. This is the normal state and creates a persistent drag on long volatility products like UVXY and VXX as they roll from cheaper expiring contracts into more expensive later ones.
Backwardation is when near-term futures are priced higher than longer-dated ones. This typically occurs during market stress when traders are willing to pay more for immediate volatility protection. Backwardation benefits long volatility holders.
VX30 is the interpolated 30-day constant-maturity VIX futures level. It's calculated by blending the two nearest VIX futures contracts to represent a synthetic futures price that always has exactly 30 days to expiration. This is what products like VXX actually track, and it's displayed on the VIX Term Structure page.
The VIX Term Structure page displays a real-time chart of VIX futures prices across all available contract months, along with VIX spot and VX30. It visually shows whether the market is in contango or backwardation, how steep the curve is, and how the structure has changed over time. This is essential context for understanding the forces acting on products like UVXY, UVIX, and VXX.
All three track short-term VIX futures, but with different leverage and structures:
The Vol ETF Comparison page on the dashboard has a detailed side-by-side breakdown across all dimensions.
These are 3x leveraged inverse equity ETFs that profit when their underlying index falls:
Like the VIX ETFs, these products experience daily decay due to leverage rebalancing. They spike during market selloffs and decay during sustained rallies. The same spike-based analytical framework applies to these tickers.
The Natural Gas Dashboard is a dedicated section of the platform focused on natural gas markets and the leveraged ETFs that track them (BOIL and KOLD). It includes a live chart, snapshot sidebar, and specialized tools covering natural gas production, weather impacts, seasonality, and ETF comparison data.
BOIL provides 2x daily leveraged long exposure to natural gas futures. It profits when natural gas prices rise.
KOLD provides 2x daily leveraged short (inverse) exposure to natural gas futures. It profits when natural gas prices fall.
Both products experience leveraged decay, and both are tracked on the NatGas ETF Comparison page with side-by-side seasonality, performance, and pricing data.
The Production tool tracks U.S. natural gas production data over time, including dry gas production volumes. It helps traders understand the supply side of the natural gas market, which is a key driver of pricing alongside weather demand and storage levels.
The Weather Impact Tool links historical weather data (average highs, average lows, and heating degree days) to natural gas ETF returns on a month-by-month basis. It includes a monthly overview with year-by-year breakdowns and a Reaction Finder where you can select a month, a weather metric, and a temperature range to see how BOIL, KOLD, and natural gas futures historically performed under those specific conditions.
Heating Degree Days measure how much colder a given period was compared to a 65°F baseline. Higher HDD values mean colder weather and more heating demand, which typically increases natural gas consumption. HDD is one of the key weather metrics available in the Weather Impact Tool.
Yes. The Natural Gas Dashboard has its own Seasonality and Weekday Patterns tools specifically focused on BOIL, KOLD, and natural gas futures. These work the same way as the volatility versions but with data tailored to the natural gas market. There's also a NatGas Heatmap and a NatGas Outlier Finder.
There are currently 8 courses covering everything from absolute beginner concepts to advanced volatility strategies. Topics include trading fundamentals, volatility basics, implied volatility mechanics, options strategies (30+ strategies), VIX behavior, volatility ETF deep dives, and a comprehensive technical indicators encyclopedia covering 120+ indicators.
The courses are numbered 1 through 8 in a recommended learning path. Course 1 (Trading Concepts) and Course 2 (Volatility Trading for Beginners) are the starting points. From there, the courses progressively build on each other, moving from implied volatility mechanics to options strategies, then into VIX-specific behavior and advanced topics.
If you already have experience with options and volatility, you can skip ahead to the intermediate courses (3-5) or dive directly into the UVXY Deep Dive (Course 6) or VIX Behavior (Course 7).
Yes. Every course includes quiz questions to test your understanding. There are over 500 quiz questions across all 8 courses. The questions range from basic concept checks to scenario-based questions that test practical application.
The Options Strategies course covers over 30 individual strategies, from basic calls and puts to multi-leg structures like iron condors, butterflies, straddles, strangles, and calendar spreads. Each strategy includes an explanation of the setup, risk/reward profile, ideal market conditions, and example scenarios.
The Technical Indicators course is a comprehensive encyclopedia covering 120+ technical indicators. Each entry explains how the indicator is calculated, how to interpret it, its strengths and weaknesses, and practical use cases. Indicators covered include moving averages, oscillators, volume-based indicators, momentum indicators, and many more.
Yes. The courses page shows upcoming topics on the roadmap including Options Greeks Deep Dive, Volatility Skew & Surface, Portfolio Hedging, Earnings Volatility, and Advanced Vol Strategies. New courses are added periodically as part of the membership.
Price data is sourced from major financial data providers. Live charts use real-time market feeds, while analytical tools use end-of-day data for historical calculations. VIX futures data comes from CBOE-sourced feeds.
Yes. Historical VX30 data is available as a CSV download. This contains the daily interpolated 30-day constant-maturity VIX futures level going back through the full available history. The download link is accessible from the VIX Term Structure page.
Historical data coverage depends on the ticker. For UVXY, the data goes back to its inception in 2011. Newer products like UVIX have shorter histories. VIX data extends further back. The tools automatically use the full available history for each ticker, so you always get the maximum sample size for any analysis.
Leveraged ETFs like UVXY frequently undergo reverse splits to keep their share price tradeable. The platform uses split-adjusted data, which means all historical prices are retroactively adjusted so the entire history reflects the current share count. This ensures that return calculations and spike measurements are continuous and accurate across split events.
Try refreshing the page. Most tools fetch data from external providers on each page load, and occasional timeouts or network hiccups can cause loading issues. If the problem persists, try clearing your browser cache or using a different browser.
If a specific tool consistently fails, the upstream data provider may be experiencing issues. Data typically resolves within a few hours.
Live charts require a desktop browser with JavaScript enabled. If the chart area is blank, try resizing your browser window, disabling any ad blockers that may interfere with the charting library, or switching to Chrome or Firefox. Charts are not supported on mobile devices.
Some tools cache data locally in your browser to improve load times. If data appears stale, try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) to bypass the cache. The platform also caches data for up to one hour in some tools, so recently closed trading sessions may take a short time to fully update.