Vol Around the World – No Major Changes

by Enis February 28, 2013 4:29 pm • Commentary

Though the vol market globally has been on a roller coast in the past week, the implied vol levels for practically all major asset classes globally are very close to the same spot as they were last Thursday.

Here is this week’s Vol Around the World snapshot, courtesy of Bloomberg:

3 month Implied Volatility of Various Assets, Courtesy of Bloomberg
3 month Implied Volatility of Various Assets, Courtesy of Bloomberg

Having said that, all markets just FEEL much more unstable than they were a week ago.  As a professional volatility trader, my spider sense has been going off in the past week as prices of financial assets are moving in a very disjointed manner.  Just see the way stocks traded in the last 10 minutes of the trading day today for Exhibit A.

But it’s not just U.S. stocks.  Currencies and commodities are making very big swings on little news, and other global stock markets made multiple 2%+ moves this week.  In this environment, a VIX of around 15 seems too low to me.