Wall Street Journal: The death of volatility?

[Grandluxe]

May 15, 2014

Fear has left the building.

Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge has fallen so far that at least one market watcher wonders if structural, permanent changes have taken place in the market.

Minus a couple of brief spikes, the VIX has roughly remained around 14 for much of the year, well below its long-term average of about 20. Neither the geopolitical tensions in the Ukraine nor the two-month selloff in tech and small-cap stocks has made much of an impact on the broad market, with the Dow and S&P 500 perched near record levels.

“It is time to ask the question that dares not speak its name (at least on options desks): are we witnessing the death of volatility?” Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at New York brokerage ConvergEx Group, asked in a research note this week. “Are we so accustomed to central bank intervention that any negative macro action has an equal and offsetting policy reaction?

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/05/15/morning-moneybeat-the-death-of-volatility/?mod=yahoo_hs

What do you think? Is there a permanent structural shift in the markets?

 

[SpunkyTrader]

What do you think? Is there a permanent structural shift in the markets?

Market and economic fundamentals have changed drastically since 08. Central planners have put this baby in overdrive. Markets only move on fed announcements and news, it's a clown show.

Don't be surprised when we see markets only open a couple hours a day.

 

[Crispy]

May 15, 2014

Fear has left the building.

Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge has fallen so far that at least one market watcher wonders if structural, permanent changes have taken place in the market.

Minus a couple of brief spikes, the VIX has roughly remained around 14 for much of the year, well below its long-term average of about 20. Neither the geopolitical tensions in the Ukraine nor the two-month selloff in tech and small-cap stocks has made much of an impact on the broad market, with the Dow and S&P 500 perched near record levels.

“It is time to ask the question that dares not speak its name (at least on options desks): are we witnessing the death of volatility?” Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at New York brokerage ConvergEx Group, asked in a research note this week. “Are we so accustomed to central bank intervention that any negative macro action has an equal and offsetting policy reaction?

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/05/15/morning-moneybeat-the-death-of-volatility/?mod=yahoo_hs

What do you think? Is there a permanent structural shift in the markets?

"research note"....

Probably a perfect time for his sales force to go deep otm puts..

 

[Butterball]

"Markets have reached a permanent high plateau"
"The death of equities"
"The death of volatility"

What's next?

 

[Derrick1983]

I’ve been noticing this as well. It seems like regular news doesn’t actually affect the markets as much as policy by the U.S. Fed. Everything else is like a blip in the overall picture.

 

[xelite777]

Forget what the newspapers/TV/traders are saying, concentrate only on (and trade) stocks/commodities/sectors/currencies/etc... with high volatility and solid volume, if that's what you are looking for. Your scanning software can do that in seconds and you will get plenty of them every day.

Seriously, how hard is that?

So pleeeeeeease, enough with the "low" volatility song already.

 

[kut2k2]

Forget what the newspapers/TV/traders are saying, concentrate only on (and trade) stocks/commodities/sectors/currencies/etc... with high volatility and solid volume, if that's what you are looking for. Your scanning software can do that in seconds and you will get plenty of them every day.

Seriously, how hard is that?

So pleeeeeeease, enough with the "low" volatility song already.

+1

 

[zdreg]

Market and economic fundamentals have changed drastically since 08. Central planners have put this baby in overdrive. Markets only move on fed announcements and news, it's a clown show.

Don't be surprised when we see markets only open a couple hours a day.

"Don't be surprised when we see markets only open a couple hours a day"
before that happens the market will be closed because the governments is instituting capital controls because.... chose your poison.

 

[eurusdzn]

There are serious "trading for a living traders" here ( of which i am not one) so this is
by no means to be a wise guy.
Weekly charts of most assets, stocks mostly, when viewed after the close Monday typically show a small bar. By Friday the weekly bar is large.
Couldnt that premise alone be the base of a trading system?

 

[SplitFire]

EURUSD feel so slow lately...