re: Looking for volatility/tail risk hedged equity fund or etf

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I've read every reply in this thread and think I'm more lost than after only reading the OP.
I love Money Talk, but damn I'm a layman.

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To be fair, I imagine there are very very few people who fully grasp what Doc and I are talking about. Even more fair, I'm sure he probably would run circles around me.

Basic Breakdown

Key Background
- Volatility effectively is "risk" and it is really how much movement is expected. Mathematically it is the dispersion of values around the avg/mean. Basically, say you expected a 5% return if low volatility may say 99% sure it is between 4%-6% returns while high volatility would have 99% 1%-9% returns

- Volatility is a standin for risk. The higher volatility, the more unsure you are that what you expect will happen

- Generally speaking, people are "risk averse" and rather have a sure thing than the chances of a big gain

- This creates the idea of a "risk premium" -> If you want to have higher expected investment returns, you have to accept higher risk/volatility

- So with this in mind, treasury bonds = super safe that's why there are like ~2% while stocks expect 7% because they are more risky

If you want to be safe, you can reduce "risk premium" but that also reduces your expected gains as well

Story
- OP asks about markets that hedge volatility

- I point out that in theory just investing in less risky assets should give you the same expected return. In practice less risky assets give you a better return since hedging usually has transaction costs

- Doc points out the 3 ways to reduce volatility
1) less risky asset portfolio
2) Buy ETF or Stocks + VIX that says "I think market goes up but just in case I'm buying insurance against a huge tanking event
3) Invest in hedge fund with complex tail risk strategy

-Iowa Golfer points out you can by options on volatility instead of the volatility yourself if you only want to protect against huge volatility spikes

-Doc points out if you combine market + hedging against volatility (referring swing downwards) what you set up depends on just how far of a swing downwards you are worried about. Also points out historical notes like Black Friday in 87

-Fenton + Me discussing insurance against downside risk as it relates to a portfolio

Is someone buying insurance to have more stable investment gains or to protect against a big loss event?

Insurance is based on utility theory. That's something worth reading up on and hard to explain on a message board

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Gene - You have a junk email account I can send you an invite on?

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Invite for what?

Appreciate it. I'll give it a more indepth look at some point today