Just to be clear - I think you're wrong, so I don't recommend it.

You need stock options permissions (don't know where is that in ETrade), and then you need to find options on SPY. Here are quotes on Yahoo: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SPY/options?p=SPY, select desired expiration date. Wait for VIX to be low so that premiums are cheap, and load up on those puts.

And again, I do not recommend it. You'll quite likely lose 100% of the option premium you paid.

Understood, not planning to do this immediately.

I've also considered trading the VIX, but the only ETFs I've found seem somewhat uncorrelated or less volatile. Can VIX be traded directly?

You can go long or short on VIX but read what "contango" is and what happened during the volpocalypse.