July 21, 2014

Volatility Views 119: Craziest Week Ever

1 hour 6 minutes

Volatility Review: crazy week for VIX cash. It had a range of 10.59 to 15.38this week. Thursday: largest jump in over a year -- the day after Jul options settled at a 7-year low settlement print of 11.03. VIX takes big jump on Ukraine, Middle East worries. Set against another Malaysian Airlines crash and rising Middle East tensions, the VIX had its greatest jump in more than a year on Thursday, closing at 14.54, up 32.18%, this represented the VIX's greatest rise since April 2013, reported Bloomberg. Gold jumps 1.5% after plane crash. GLD options breakdown: 2.1 calls to puts, Aug IV - 14%. Has been mostly hovering around 12% recently. Malaysian crash wreaks havoc on wheat futures market.

Volatility Voicemail: Listener questions and comments

Question from George: I do not know whether the VIX index or the implied volatility and historical volatility of the SPY ETF can be better indicator to make sure where the SPY, so the most assets, head. How do you use these indicators together for your work? I would use other indicators too such as moving averages, volume underlying price, RSI and other major supports and resistance levels of the underlying prices. Thank You. Regards, George

Question from Anthony: I just downloaded the CBOE skew index data and worked a little excel fu. The average of the skew index since inception is 117.43. It went out on Wednesday at 134.86 - if my reading of this is correct then that shows a substantial premium to SPX puts going into Thursday’s correction - which says a lot of people were hedged? Of course this is substantially lower than the recent high of 143.26 set on 6/20. So apparently fewer people were concerned about a selloff prior to the actual drop. After Thursday’s selloff the index dropped again to 131.65. That surprised me since I’d think the panic would spark more put buying. Does this indicate the market isn’t as concerned as the selloff might initially indicate?

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