VIX futures market makers can hedge their volatility exposure by trading SPX options and futures. We use the daily VIX futures demand by VIX ETP issuers as an estimate of the end-of-day shock to market makers’ net position and find that the demand impacts the SPX futures market in the direction consistent with the VIX futures hedging channel. The VIX ETP demand is a strong predictor of the end-of-day SPX futures return in-sample and out-of-sample. We find evidence of a subsequent reversal, suggesting that VIX futures hedging activities can move the SPX futures market for reasons unrelated to price discovery.

We analyze the lead–lag relation between VIX futures and SPX futures. The two futures markets are weakly connected when market volatility is low. By contrast, when volatility is high, their prices are highly negatively correlated, with VIX futures leading SPX futures. However, the tightness of the lead–lag relation prevents the formation of profitable trading strategies in a setup that includes transaction costs. An analysis of the time variation in the lead–lag relation finds that an improvement in the relative liquidity of one market strengthens the lead of that market. Moreover, the hedging activities of market makers influence the lead–lag relation.