The Evolution of the VIX (1)

 
Volatility is notorious for clustering in the short-term, mean-reverting in the medium-term and settling into multi-year macro cycles over the long-term.  I have chronicled each of these themes in this space in the past.

Apart from volatility, I have also taken great pains to talk about the movements of the VIX, which is one of the most famous instances of implied volatility and represents investor expectations about future volatility in the S&P 500 Index for the next thirty calendar days.  Surprising to some, the VIX and volatility (which generally refers to realized or historical volatility), while correlated, are very different animals.  Not only are these two very different, their evolutions have been very different as well.  Volatility, which has a much longer history, seems to exhibiting the same traits that it has exhibited throughout its lifetime, with relatively modest tweaks around the edges from time to time.

The same cannot be said for the VIX.  One thing about the VIX that has changed in the three decades or so of VIX data is the speed at which the VIX has moved up and down.  In a nutshell, VIX cycle times have shortened dramatically.  In other words, the VIX now has a tendency to spike much faster and mean-revert downward much faster as well.  This phenomenon has been ongoing for the past decade or so, but it became more pronounced following the Brexit craziness – or at least the first chapter of the Brexit craziness.

One way you can see how the changes in the VIX have differed from the changes in the volatility of the SPX is to look at volatility spikes.

In the first graphic, below, I show the number of days per year with 2% and 4% moves in the SPX going back to 1990.  Take note of the ebbs and flows in volatility and the clustering of volatility around the dotcom bubble and again around the 2008 Great Recession.

[source(s):  CBOE, Yahoo, VIX and More]

In the second graphic, I plot annual VIX spikes of 20% or more for each year going back to 1990.  Note that while visual inspection does not reveal any obvious trend in the SPX volatility data, the VIX spike data for the same period show a pronounced upward trend, reflecting the heightened sensitivity of the VIX to changes in volatility of the SPX.  In other words, even though volatility may be the same, the VIX is becoming more sensitive to volatility.  Another example that supports this point:  of all the one-day spikes in the VIX of 30% or more, 71% have happened in the past decade and only 29% are from the previous two decades.  The volatility landscape may or may not be changing, but the VIX is.

[source(s):  CBOE, Yahoo, VIX and More]

Further Reading:
Clustering of Volatility Spikes
Putting Low Stock Volatility to Good Use (Guest Columnist at Barron’s)
What My Dog Can Tell Us About Volatility
My Low Volatility Prediction for 2016: Both Idiocy and Genius
What Is Historical Volatility?
Calculating Centered and Non-centered Historical Volatility
Rule of 16 and VIX of 40
Shrinking VIX Macro Cycles
Chart of the Week: VIX Macro Cycles and a New Floor in the VIX
The New VIX Macro Cycle Picture
Recent Volatility and VIX Macro Cycles
VIX Macro Cycle Update
Was 2007 the Beginning of a New Era in Volatility?
VIX Macro Cycles
Last Two Days Are #5 and #6 One-Day VIX Spikes in History
2014 Had Third Highest Number of 20% VIX Spikes
Today’s 34% VIX Spike and What to Expect Going Forward
All-Time VIX Spike #11 (and a treasure trove of VIX spike data)
The Biggest VIX Spike Ever: A Retrospective
VIX Sets Some New Records, Suggesting Volatility Near Peak
Highest Intraday VIX Readings
Short-Term and Long-Term Implications of the 30% VIX Spike
VIX Spike of 35% in Four Days Is Short-Term Buy Signal
VXO Chart from 1987-1988 and Explanation of VIX vs. VXO
Volatility History Lesson: 1987
Volatility During Crises
Chart of the Week: VXV and Systemic Failure
Forces Acting on the VIX
A Conceptual Framework for Volatility Events

For those who may be interested, you can always follow me on Twitter at @VIXandMore

Disclosure(s): short VIX at time of writing

The Year in VIX and Volatility (2016)

The consensus called for a big uptick in volatility in 2016 and while there was a lot of drama, the VIX spikes were relatively manageable and short-lived.  The VIX opened the year at 22.48 and ended the year at just 14.04.  For the full year, the median VIX was 14.31, while SPX historical volatility for the full year ended up at a mere 13.12.

That being said, there were five distinct VIX spikes in the graphic below, listed according to chronology:

• Fears related to slowing growth in China (January)
• A plunge in crude oil prices to $26.05/bbl. for WTIC, as investors grappled with the possibility that Cushing storage facilities would be exhausted (February)
• The surprise Brexit vote result in favor of the U.K. leaving the E.U. (June)
• A cocktail of nearly simultaneous shocks from Fed President Rosengren (suddenly sounding hawkish), Jeff Gundlach (interest rates have bottomed) and the European Central Bank (no additional stimulus) puts pressure on stocks (September)
• Increasing uncertainty leading up to the U.S. election (November) 

In all five instances, the VIX moved up sharply, but in defiance of historical precedent, the volatility index moved down almost as sharply as it moved up.  In fact, some of the biggest extremes for the year came in the form of volatility crushes, where the VIX had an unprecedented series of sharp downward one-day move.  Checking the record books, the only previous year that the VIX posted three top 20 one-day declines was 2007 – and clearly investors were in denial that year.  This year the Trump election caused the sixth largest one-day drop in the history of the VIX, whereas the Thursday before and Tuesday after the Brexit vote triggered the eighteenth and tenth largest one-day VIX declines.

On the other side of the ledger, some of the upward moves in the VIX made the record books as well.  The day following the Brexit vote saw a 49.3% VIX spike – the fifth highest one-day spike on record.  What was even more surprising was the Rosengren/Gundlach/ECB cocktail noted above triggered a 39.9% spike (eleventh highest in history) in what seemed to be a relatively calm market environment in September.  It turns out the VIX was just getting warmed up for greater things, including a record nine consecutive up days leading up to the November election.

Even with these extremes, the highs and lows in the VIX were rather middling, with the VIX peaking at 32.09 on January 20^th and hitting an annual low of 10.93 on December 21^st.

The graphic below captures these and other highlights from 2016:

[source(s): StockCharts.com, VIX and More]

Included in the non-VIX highlights are a 5000+ year low in interest rates in Europe and Japan (where negative interest rates prevailed) as well as a thirteen-year low in the price of crude oil.  On the geopolitical front, political craziness of one kind or another abounded in Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Colombia and South Africa, among other locations.  Terrorism also left its footprint again in 2016 and Zika also created considerable political and social turmoil.  In the financial realm, European banks had a very difficult year and begin 2017 on shaky footing.

While the year ended on a relatively quiet not, I suspect 2017 will have much more in the way of new surprises, including swans of many dark hues.  Next week I will resume the VIX and More fear poll and find out what the consensus is for volatility and its causes in the coming year.

Finally, since 2011, I have been maintaining a proprietary Macro Risk Index that measures volatility and risk across a broad range of asset classes, including U.S. equities, foreign equities, commodities, currencies and bonds.  In 2016, the Macro Risk Index was trending down most of the year, punctuated by significant spikes in February (crude oil) and again in June (European currencies). 

How did 2016 measure up to expectations?  I sum up the year in My Low Volatility Prediction for 2016: Both Idiocy and Genius.  Also worth investigating are a pair of Barron’s articles from one year ago laying out two opposing perspectives on volatility in 2016.  For the case for rising volatility and what to do about it, try Jared Woodard’s Prepare for Rising Volatility in 2016.  I provide the contrarian point of view in The Case Against High Stock-Market Volatility in 2016.

Have a happy, healthy and profitable 2017!

Related posts:

• The Year in VIX and Volatility (2015)
• The Year in VIX and Volatility (2014)
• The Year in VIX and Volatility (2013)
• The Year in VIX and Volatility (2012)
• The Year in VIX and Volatility (2011)
• The Year in VIX and Volatility, 2010
• Chart of the Week: The VIX and Volatility in 2009
• The Year in Global Volatility (2008)
• My Low Volatility Prediction for 2016: Both Idiocy and Genius
• VIX Sets New Record with Nine Up Days in a Row
• Top VIX Crushes in History

For those who may be interested, you can always follow me on Twitter at @VIXandMore

Disclosure(s): the CBOE is an advertiser on VIX and More

My Low Volatility Prediction for 2016: Both Idiocy and Genius

A year ago, Steve Sears of Barron’s asked me to pen a guest column for The Striking Price and use the opportunity to opine on how I saw the volatility landscape unfolding in 2016.  Without thinking about it too much, I was fairly certain I was going to devote the column to the many threats that had the potential to spiral out of control during the course of the year, but before I had an opportunity to start translating my thoughts into writing, other pundits started weighing in with their predictions for 2016 and without exception, everyone who ventured a guess on the direction of volatility was adamant that volatility would be substantially higher in 2016 than 2015.

Not wanting to follow the herd and always on the lookout for a more provocative point of view, I decided to fade the consensus, rip up the script in my head and adopt a contrarian outlook:  The Case Against High Stock-Market Volatility in 2016.  The column began as follows:

“Looking at all the market predictions for 2016, one thing is certain: Almost all of the pundits agree that volatility will be up, making a bet on rising volatility one of the year’s most popular trading ideas.

But, as is the case with much of the investment landscape, when most of the pundits agree about how the future will unfold, it pays to investigate the contrarian point of view.

As to volatility, the contrarian perspective is particularly compelling for 2016 because volatility is notoriously hard to predict; investors have a habit of dramatically overestimating its future level; and, when it comes to forecasting the causes of volatility, “experts” and investors alike have a penchant for fighting the last war.”

Then came January.  For those who have tried to put it out of their memory, January was one of the worst first months on record, with the S&P 500 Index falling 7.3% for the month.  The bearish trend continued into February, as fears related to China and crude oil had investors selling en masse.  By the time stocks found a bottom on February 11^th, the S&P 500 Index was down 11.4% -- by some measures the worst beginning for stocks in history.  Volatility, of course, was spiking and the VIX had already topped 30.00 on three separate occasions just seven weeks into the year.

My prediction of lower volatility:  complete idiocy.

But the year was not over and we still had to grapple with Brexit, the crazy and unpredictable election season in the U.S., a Fed interest rate hike and persistent political turmoil in places like Italy and Brazil.  Amazingly, stocks showed a tremendous amount of resiliency and all the VIX spikes were given the Whac-A-Mole treatment as VIX mean reversion emerged as a key theme during 2016.

Now that the year is (almost) in the books, it turns out my contrarian low volatility prediction was spot on and the rest of the pundits ended up on the wrong side of a crowded losing trade, assuming one was patient enough to take a full-year perspective.  Genius?  Probably not, but definitely more right than wrong, despite my having to wear a dunce cap for the first two months of the year.

The graphic below shows the annual average VIX and historical volatility going back to 1990.  Note that while the average VIX fell from 16.67 to 15.83 this year, there was an even larger drop in realized or historical volatility, which fell sharply from 15.53 to 13.14.

[source(s):  CBOE, Yahoo, VIX and More]

As far as takeaways are concerned, there is the obvious lesson regarding the herd mentality and crowded trades.  Additionally, there are also issues regarding how investors frame a problem or potential problem.  For example, when one expects an increase in volatility they are more likely to be overprepared for that development and/or overreact when there are initial signs of an increase in volatility.  Ironically, if investors load up on SPX puts or VIX calls, then this makes it much more difficult for panic to filter into the market.  This leads to a theme that has been repeated often in this space:  VIX spikes are notoriously difficult to predict and it is also more difficult to anticipate a change in volatility regimes than many believe.

Last but not least, as the graphic above shows, predictions of future volatility almost always overshoot realized volatility, which is why in the last 27 years only the extreme turmoil in 2008 saw realized volatility higher than the VIX over the course of a full year.

As for 2017, when it comes to volatility, expect the unexpected.

Related posts:

• The Case Against High Stock-Market Volatility in 2016 (Barron’s)
• The Case Against High Stock-Market Volatility in 2016 (Guest Columnist at Barron’s)
• VIX Term Structure and VIX Forecasts
• Was the VIX Too Low in 2013? No…
• Violent Disagreement Across VIX Futures
• The Gap Between the VIX and Realized Volatility
• Extremes in the Spread Between the VIX and 20 Day Historical Volatility in the SPX
• VIX Futures: What Were/Are They Thinking?
• Average Annual Normalized VIX Futures Term Structure, 2004-2014
• Revisiting the VIX:VXV Ratio
• The VIX, Lehman Brothers, and Forecasting
• Volatility Aces Bloggers
• What Is Historical Volatility?
• Forces Acting on the VIX
• A Conceptual Framework for Volatility Events

For those who may be interested, you can always follow me on Twitter at @VIXandMore

Disclosure(s): the CBOE is an advertiser on VIX and More

Economic Data Surprise Index Shows Continued Weakness

Today we get another glimpse into the behind-the-scenes machinations of the “data dependent” Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) with the release of the minutes from the April 26-27 meeting.

While the Fed has a dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability, lately there has been considerable discussion about the how much the Fed should let global considerations factor into Fed policy.  Clearly, the pace of economic growth in China or the stability of euro zone has a significant downstream effect on economic activity in the United States.  Additionally, with 48% of revenues from the S&P 500 companies coming from international markets, policy formulation in an increasingly interconnected global economy is becoming more complicated with each advance in technology, communications and logistics.

Given this backdrop, just how does the data look?  For the past seven years I have been publishing an economic data surprise index that aggregates U.S. economic data relative to consensus expectations across areas such as employment, the consumer, housing/construction, manufacturing and inflation.  The chart below aggregates data across all these areas and shows data peaking relative to expectations during October 2014.  Since that peak, however, economic data relative to expectations deteriorated sharply, falling to an all-time low during the middle of January 2016 that was matched again at the end of last month. 

[source(s):  VIX and More]

If the Fed is indeed data dependent, then there is no avoiding the conclusion that aggregate data relative to expectations has been a disaster for the past 1 ½ months.  There are some signs of stability forming in the current environment and clearly the strength of the dollar and the price of crude oil will have a great deal to say about economic data going forward.  Then again, international events such as the Brexit vote and the evolution of negative interest rate policies of central banks across the globe may trump all domestic U.S. economic data.

[Readers who are interested in more information on the component data included in this graphic and the methodology used are encouraged to check out the links below. For those seeking more details on the specific economic data releases which are part of my aggregate data calculations, check out Chart of the Week: The Year in Economic Data (2010).]

Related posts:

• Stocks and Economic Data Continue to Move in Opposite Directions
• The Economic Data Cliff
• Worst Post-2009 Week in Economic Data Relative to Expectations
• Stocks and Economic Data on Upswing Despite Disappointing Manufacturing and Housing Numbers
• Economic Data vs. Expectations: Stocks and Employment Data Rallying Since October
• Economic Data: Divergence or Confirmation for Stocks?
• Aggregate View of U.S. Data vs. Expectations
• How Good Has the U.S. Data Been Lately?
• Economic Data Not Supporting Gloom and Doom Forecasts – At Least for Now
• Economic Data Relative to Expectations and Stock Prices
• Continued Lackluster Data vs. Expectations
• Economic Data Frozen Until Next Thursday
• More Upticks in Economic Data vs. Expectations
• Economic Data Trends Improving
• Chart of the Week: Updated Economic Data Trends
• Economic Data Trends in Advance of Nonfarm Payrolls
• Trends in Economic Data Relative to Expectations

Disclosure(s): none