Variance risk premium is a phenomenon on the variance swap market, of the variance swap strike being greater than the realized variance on average. For most trades, the buyer of variance ends up with a loss on the trade, while the seller profits. The amount that the buyer of variance typically loses in entering into the variance swap, is known as the variance risk premium. The variance risk premium can be naively justified by taking into account the large negative convexity of a short variance position; variance during rare times of crisis can be 50-100 times that of normal market conditions.