marinemonk

Since the elections are about 6 months away, buying a straddle now will lead to significant time value erosion irrespective of what happens to volatility. I want to be able to benefit from an increase in volatility without having the risk of losing money through time value decay.

Interactive brokers has an office in Mumbai for this. You should contact them.

India will have its once in five year general elections at some point in the next 7 months. If the current government does not decide to call them earlier, they will have to be held in May 2014 as the term of the current government expires then. It is almost a given that IVs will rise from the current levels the moment the elections are announced. I'm looking for a way to benefit from this increase without taking any directional call on the markets. Although India does have its own VIX, there is no futures on the VIX. If there were futures, I would have bought the futures and rolled them over till the elections. Would like to know if there is a way to benefit from an expected increase in IVs in the absence of VIX futures. One has to keep in mind that the IVs could increase sharply at any point from now till May and be able to exit when that spike comes and of course, the fact that I'm looking for a non-directional strategy.