From WisdomTree: I have written on the jump in the VIX that occurred in February, taking investors by surprise. While there was a precursor to this unprecedented surge in the VIX (a compression of spreads between implied minus realized volatility), it was subtle and the move was very sudden.
From Dana Lyons: Short-term volatility expectations took a dramatic spike higher Monday.
From Dana Lyons: Non-Commercial Speculators in VIX futures have now flipped from their largest net-short position ever, to their largest net-long position.
From Tyler Durden: If the XIV-buyers were “picking up nickels,” then mysterious VIX trader ’50-cent’ was the “steamroller” as his cumulative P&L swung $400 million last week from a big loss to a $200 million plus gain in a year.
From Dana Lyons: By any number of metrics, the stock volatility market just experienced its most spasmatic episode of all-time — what does it mean for traders and investors?
From Franklin Templeton Investments: The recent drops in the stock market can lead to a lot of questions and concerns about what investors should do.
From Contrarian Outlook: In my years in the markets, I’ve seen some dangerous financial products come on the scene, but the two I’m going to show you in a moment might be the most dangerous.
From Dana Lyons: Relative to the moderate drawdown in the stock market this week, short-term volatility expectations are screaming higher.
From John Rubino: 2017 was literally the smoothest stretch of highway that US stocks have ever traveled. Rising almost every day and seldom falling hard, they made it virtually impossible for investors to lose money.
From Dana Lyons: Both the S&P 500 and its volatility index have been rallying; which one has it right?
From Dana Lyons: As measured by the VIX, stocks have never enjoyed a less volatile year than 2017.
From Bryce Coward, CFA: The drop in the VIX to ultra-low levels in 2017 has been a point of consternation for market participants and largely misunderstood.
We speak about Long Volatility products today in our ETF/Fund Flows recap and their dips to new all-time lows on yet another rally to new highs in equities and a plunge in relative Volatilities across the board.
Analyst/ETF Trader Paul Weisbruch of Street One Financial brings us his daily fund flows update, which today looks at continued outflows out of large cap and small cap equities, and rising volatility with corresponding volume upticks in VIX-linked products.
From Tyler Durden: Last week, ahead of the FOMC, we reported that in the latest striking development involving volatility derivative products, the total outstanding Vega across the entire levered and inverse VIX ETP space had reached $375 million, an all time high.