Other Voices on Volatility, Risk, etc.

One of the advantages of living in California is that by the time I wipe the sleep out of my eyes and stare at the computer screen for the first time each morning, bloggers from time zones to the east of me have already digested information I haven’t even seen yet and drawn their own conclusions. In many instances, this allows me to cherry pick what I think is important to ponder without having to boil the ocean along with a couple of eggs before the market opens. This particular morning, five related items are among those that are most prominent in my deliberations:

• Headline Charts has another superb overview of the current market breadth situation and concludes that it looks generally positive for the bulls.
  
  
• The CXO Advisory Group analyzes market movements around options expiration and notes a pattern of slightly elevated returns pre-expiration and slightly lower returns post-expiration.
  
  
• Adam at the Daily Options Report expands on the weather analogy as it applies to VIX options. [VIX options and the weather was one of the first subjects I tackled on VIX and More when I started blogging at the beginning of the year.]
  
  
• Babak at Trader’s Narrative discusses the BCA US Financial Stress Index and notes that while stress in the financial markets has not been this significant since the Savings and Loan Crisis of the 1980s, BCA Research remains bullish.
  
  
• Finally, the MarketPsych.com Fear Index overlays the percentage of “fear” words [the blue line] in the U.S. financial news over a candlestick chart of the NASDAQ 100.