So idea on this was buying a yearly level on VIX at a place where stocks were very likely to pullback as a way to hedge the longs.
This was suggested in the weekly strategy here : "If stocks consolidate I like the idea of trying TLT if above its 1HR1 level 127.87 and next weekly pivot; possibly looking to buy VIX futs J6 either with a move from Q1S1 17.72 as support or if one more plunge then down to YS1 (!) 16.85 would be a good stab at speculative long."
And repeated here on 3/22/2016 daily SPY commentary: "Still, the VIJ6 idea could work as long as it lifts up from 16.85. This is a situation similar to the ES short idea at 1988, although this situation officially "speculative" as we are buying support (ie, speculative buy = something below all pivots). Depending on your agility you can simply wait for a clear reversal and enter there, or watch the hourly chart and buy with any lift from the same level, or could have entered speculatively at the close today in smaller size with trade valid above 16.85 from here. Of course the more time passes the more volume will shift into the K contract with different levels."
16.85 to currently 18.30 is up over 8% with DIA down -1.3% from price high to current level, and SOXX down about -2.8%. Of course you would not be putting in a huge amount of capital on a short term high volatility hedge, but 1 unit VIX would have helped quite a lot of the stock long position drop this week.
Of course the same idea could have been played through VIX ETF like UVXY. Obviously VIX related vehicles are strictly short term with a lot of deterioration either in futures or the ETF. The same idea could have worked through put options but that is just too much for me to go into here.
UVXY is up 15% from Tuesday's close (when VIJ6 reached 13.85) to current level. From Wednesday open to today's high was as 16% move. But this could vanish as quickly as it came so if taking as a hedge I'd be locking in some depending on how SPY and other indexes move on their weekly S1s. In fact SPY holding WS1 as RSI on the 1H chart reaches oversold sets the stage for a bounce which would quickly give back some of the hedge gains.
Point: in the future if a short term hedge on longs looks like a good idea I'll mention VIX futs or or index puts because they are all doing the same thing - allowing one to hold winning long positions while there is a high probability of a near term drop.