XSP is my newest friend.

So i had recently posted that I will seek protection with buying SSO puts (mainly because its within my price range). That would be until I read about XSP. Its a mini that trades at 1/100th of the S&P 500. That means its the little brother of SPX. I like this because the price is well within my range, and the options are European. I consider European to benefit the seller, but since this is for protecting my principal, I think buying puts on it will suffice, especially if I insure my whole portfolio at once by buying a December put. This will hold up time value for a while.

This also creates an interesting strategy (much like Option Seller's) of selling near term way out of the money puts for decent returns each month. I considered MNX like him, but the maintenance requirement made me uncomfortable. With the S&P beat down so much lately, this is a good candidate for me to try this.