XIV pushed to another all-time high this afternoon, closing for the fourth day in a row over $100. The "Fear Index"-short ETF continues to soar, returning 105% this year, 163% in the past 12 months, and 545% since starting its latest bullish trend in February 2016. These staggering returns have piqued the interest of many, myself included, and have prompted criticism from more. I want to take a deep dive into what makes XIV tick, hypothesize future price movement, and explore how to best hedge against its radical dips. Some things to consider before starting this series: Along with the written articles, I am also publishing supplementary IPython Notebooks containing my research, calculations, and other miscellaneous code for anyone interested. As I am pulling all of my pricing information from the Quantopian research platform, a large portion of the notebook will only run on the Quantopian website. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me for help if you're having...