Market Volatility

As I have mentioned in previous communications, 2017 was not a “normal” year when it came to volatility.  In fact, it was one of the lowest volatility years on record.  More normal volatility was bound to return – and it has.  To some, this newly found volatility feels unusual, but spikes in volatility like this are very common over time.  The chart below shows the Volatility Index over the last twenty years.  As you can see, episodes like this have occurred at least every two years on average.  MORE:  Dueling Tariff Announcements Blamed for Stock Market Volatility

What Happened 301

By now, anyone interested in the market has been exposed to the media explanations of what caused the recent market volatility (these quick and deep drops are the “new normal”, which I will cover in a future blog).  One of the widely covered topics in the recent downdraft was the decimation of the inverse VIX funds.  It occurs to me that most people might not understand what these are, or why they would blow up so easily.  So, I will attempt to “laymanize” this matter.   Watch Related Video: XIV is Terminated

Cryptocurrencies

 Two weeks ago, I talked about bitcoin in my blog.  Here is what I said:

Where has the blog been?