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Lowest VIX Close Since Day Before Biggest VIX Spike Ever

ByBill Luby
Published 03/12/2013, 03:30 AM
Updated 07/09/2023, 06:31 AM
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I’m generally not one for sensationalist headlines, fear-mongering or otherwise stirring up trouble unnecessarily, but when facts line up in a manner that I know others will find interesting, I do feel an obligation to point that out.

So…at the risk of being splashed all over the Zero Hedge comments stream I thought it worth noting that yesterday the VIX closed at 11.56. While this marks the lowest close in the VIX in over six years, a surprising portion of this low VIX is the result of a calculation quirk I described earlier in The VIX, Interpolation and the Roll. In other words, I would characterize yesterday’s VIX as artificially low and considerably lower than the near-term VIX calculation (VIN).

That being said, there is no denying that the last time the VIX closed below yesterday’s close was February 26, 2007, the day before The Biggest VIX Spike Ever, a 64% jump in one day.

Do I expect a new record VIX spike today? Hardly, though I should note that just two weeks ago we did see the #11 all-time VIX spike for a single day.

What is more likely to happen is that the negative coefficient for the weighting of the far-term VIX calculation (VIF) will slowly dissipate over the course of the week and that in itself should lift the VIX about three-quarters of a point. Throw in a just one or two days of declining stocks triggering the purchase of SPX puts for portfolio protection and it would be very easy to see the VIX up more than 20% from its current level by the end of the week.

Looking back at the concerns that dominated my fear poll a couple of months ago, most of these have dramatically receded. For this reason, it looks like it will take one of those unexpected threats to get the VIX airborne once again.

Disclosure(s): none

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