Universa Investments, a "black swan" hedge fund specializing in market shocks, sensationalized this approach after it made headlines in the first quarter of 2020 for a 4,144% return when the stock market plunged.
So what we do for investors is our fund serves as protection against that sort of exogenous event, that sort of crash," Sidial said.
In short, it's a bet against the odds in exchange for lofty returns, or what's known as convex payouts.
However, if there's a market crash, the volatility on the VIX generally outperforms more than any other underlying securities in the US equities market, he noted.
For example,Cambria Tail Risk ETF (TAIL) was up 27% from mid-feb to mid-march 2020 during the stock market crash brought about by the pandemic.