iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX)

[Stock]

It's the same way in the option markets. Writers make all the money, take all the risk. Suckers buy insurance. The guys making the market provide the other side of the trade.

In the long run, options expire and most of the big money in them is on the worthless side of the trade... puts and calls out of the money purchased for insurance and by the speculator.

This ETN in particular, because it tracks a phony index made up of short dated contracts only, there is no chance it is worth anything in the long run. Ever.

Short term trading only for insurance and speculation. That's all it's good for.