With two new exchange-traded notes tracking market volatility still in registration, the benchmarks for those proposed funds are now out.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 VIX Futures Index series was launched. The suite of investable benchmark replicates various subsets of the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX. It has proved to be a popular means for large investors to hedge portfolios since the VIX essentially serves as a monitor of the implied volatility of the S&P 500's options activity.

The new VIX indexes solve a tricky issue that few have been able to overcome. While two index providers in Europe have in recent years come out with similar benchmarks, only one other has been offered in the U.S. And that one was for tracking options activity in high-yield bond markets.

The new S&P VIX series will at the very least provide a greater degree of coverage for U.S. investors interested in hedging against volatility in their bond portfolios. A pair of iPath ETNs is still moving through the regulatory phase, but could come out in the near-future. (See related story here.)

Just like the ETNs, the S&P VIX indexes are named according to the particular average maturity of the futures contracts in their lineups. The benchmarks are:

• The S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index, which measures the daily returns in first- and second-month VIX futures contracts. Its aim is to maintain an average maturity of one-month.

• The S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures Index does much the same. But it measures daily returns of fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-month VIX futures contracts. The mid-term benchmark shoots for an average five-month maturity profile. 

"Indices comprised of futures contracts have been valuable in broadening access to alternative assets where the spot is difficult to trade. We expect the S&P 500 VIX Futures Indices to do the same for volatility," said Srikant Dash, global head of research and design at Standard & Poor's, in a statement.