Volatility-selling equity strategies have become very popular over the past decade. As investors hunt for increasing, rare, high-yielding products, they have turned to selling VIX futures and writing covered calls on equity markets.
To a large extent, this makes them akin to insurance providers for equity markets. VIX futures and naked put writing offer a significant yield but come with added downside risk if the market sells off (since they usually involve leverage). In contrast, covered call writing places a cap on positive returns but offers an added premium that dampens losses in a bear