Financials are in chaos: Profiting from banks and financials going up - or down

XLF is the popular financial ETFs in the U.S. It has gone nowhere in the last 6 months or so, however, the situation with financials is nearly chaotic, Europe, Bank of America, Portugal and so on, so, volatility is to be expected.

Below are straddles for XLF for both December and January 2011. These allow an investor to profit if the underlying (XLF) goes up or down, as longs as it mkoves the necessary amount.

That move required is about 5% in December and 8% in January. Computed with StraddlesCalc tool.

This is not advice at all, please do your own due diligence. Options can easily cause 100% loss.