The stances below are c8alpha's editorial distillation of Benn Eifert's public commentary — television, podcasts, and interviews — compiled by automated transcript analysis and dated to the episode they came from. They may lag the speaker's current view and may contain extraction errors. Text in quotation marks is verbatim from the episode; everything else is our paraphrase. Benn Eifert is not affiliated with c8alpha and has not endorsed this page. Nothing here is investment advice.
Raw direction-aware returns on public statements — long calls credited when the price rose, shorts when it fell, shorts capped at −100% — in a rising market this mostly measures who was long, not who has skill. Returns run from the stance date; calls are rarely closed publicly, so fixed 90-day / 180-day / 1-year horizons are used. A horizon shows only once it has fully matured, and only at 5+ scored stances. “% correct” is the share of those scored calls whose direction-aware return was positive at the horizon — in a rising market a bullish call is correct by default, so read it beside the market, not alone.
Every tracked call with at least one matured horizon: the rows behind the Returns
line above. A dash is a horizon that has not matured yet.
Where the tracked view on a theme reversed between appearances —
bullish to bearish or back. Dates are the episodes on each side of the turn.
2022-06-27
long SPX / short SPX
spread
Benn Eifert · video
At VIX ~30, outright SPX puts require volatility to triple to generate meaningful payoff and are therefore not cost-effective as portfolio hedges — put spreads cancel out the expensive vega while still delivering directional downside protection
“I just can't look at a 30 vol and be like yeah I think that's going to triple”
Keeping it Simple on the Road | Ep. 3: 2020 From A Position of Strength
2022-06-27
SPX
neutral
Benn Eifert · video
Systematic covered-call and cash-secured-put selling programs have materially shrunk since 2020, removing the chronic gamma oversupply that suppressed risk premium for years — front-end S&P gamma now has a healthy risk premium and the right position is on the…
“the right way to be positioned now is on the other side of those flows and dislocation”
Keeping it Simple on the Road | Ep. 3: 2020 From A Position of Strength
2021-04-10
SPX
bearish
Benn Eifert · video
Overleveraged hedge funds and systematic programs that had been selling tail risk and suppressing deep OTM put prices blew up in March 2020 and exited, removing a structural source of supply, while institutional demand for protection has ticked up — creating…
“in this environment there are attractive opportunities for asymmetric risk reward that are negatively correlated with equities in the tail”
90d -6.1% · 180d -7.3% · 1y -8.3%
Dr. Benn Eifert - Bad Ideas (S3E3)
2021-04-10
Em Equities
bullish
Benn Eifert · video
Long-term productivity convergence in major EM economies — India, China, Brazil — is an inevitable structural trend that will raise living standards over a multi-decade cycle, making it the single best long-duration bet.
“if I could only make one long-term investment for the rest of my life it would probably be tier one emerging market equities”
90d +1.0% · 180d -4.5% · 1y -15.0%
Benn Eifert - Volatility Investing (S2E2)
2021-04-10
SPX
bullish
Benn Eifert · video
30-delta S&P puts 2-3 months out represent the least crowded segment of the option-selling spectrum — still attractively priced relative to risk, unlike the one-month near-money structures being crushed by pension fund overwriting flows.
“unlevered cash secured modestly downside put selling 30 delta puts is probably the laggard and still the best place to look”
90d +6.1% · 180d +7.3% · 1y +8.3%
Benn Eifert - Volatility Investing (S2E2)
2020-03-30
SPX
neutral
Benn Eifert · video
After the vol spike, forward-looking volatility risk premia are now materially higher, making notionally unlevered put selling on equity indices a better risk-reward than raw equity longs — it provides carry and a downside buffer while giving up some V-shaped…
“replacing some equity longs with notionally unlevered put selling to give yourself a buffer to the downside”
EPISODE 32: Benn Eifert, Founder and CIO of QVR Advisors
2020-03-30
VOL
bullish
Benn Eifert · video
Banks are not intermediating markets due to Dodd-Frank constraints, so the crisis of broken financial plumbing keeps short-term realized vol elevated and the VIX curve steeply inverted — resolution requires the belly/back of the curve to rise to meet the…
“go back to Vicks 30 in a couple of weeks I would say absolutely not”
90d -26.8% · 180d -47.9% · 1y -76.5%
EPISODE 32: Benn Eifert, Founder and CIO of QVR Advisors
2020-01-18
SPX
bullish
Benn Eifert · video
Massive structural, price-insensitive selling by pension funds doing call overwriting and put underwriting has deeply depressed premiums on short-dated near-the-money S&P options, creating a buying opportunity that most natural option buyers have exited
“there's really massive massive selling of short-term near the money options like on the S&P”
90d -13.0% · 180d -2.1% · 1y +16.4%
MH62 - Feature Interview Dr. Benn Eifert
2019-08-30
long SPX / short SPX
pair
The Acquirers Podcast · video
Institutional call overwriting and put underwriting has oversupplied short-term index options to the point of significantly depressing their implied volatility; the relative value trade is to be long the cheap short-term options and short relatively richer…
“we're supposed to actually be buyers of that oversold part of the options market and we're probably supposed to think about what else we can sell against it”
Volatility Research: Benn Eifert discusses volatility with Tobias Carlisle on The Acquirers Podcast
2019-08-30
long XOP / short ENERGY
pair
The Acquirers Podcast · video
Large-scale institutional call overwriting on small-cap energy names depresses their implied volatility relative to large-cap energy names without any fundamental change in relative realized volatility, creating a relative value opportunity to buy the…
“buying those options on the small cap energy names that were heavily sold by the overwriter and we might hedge by selling the options on the large cap names”
Volatility Research: Benn Eifert discusses volatility with Tobias Carlisle on The Acquirers Podcast