Quote from jamis359:
One of the most commonly repeated myths is that VIX measures fear. That is false. VIX measures how much premium investors are willing to pay when buying options. From that, "implied volatility" is computed.
Over the last several years, VIX moves opposite the market -- VIX up, market down. People assume that it's some sort of rigid law that VIX has to drop when markets rise. What people forget is that in strong bull markets, VIX goes up while the market goes up. This is because investors get so optimistic the market will keep going up the demand for options causes option prices to rise. When this happens, VIX no longer measures fear, it is measuring greed.
Here's a chart of VIX and SP500 in 1997, during the great bull market of the 90's:
<img src="http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/676/vix1997kx8.gif">
Today with VIX dropping as prices rise, that tells me that this an "ordinary" rally as opposed to an "extraordinary" bull run like 1997.