Sunday, February 17, 2008

DOW And VIX

There is a saying in the market that goes like this. When the VIX is high it is time to buy and when the VIX is low it is time to sell.

VIX is a volatility index created by The Chicago Board Options Exchange in 1986. It is an important gauge of market volatility.

VIX measures the implied volatility of SPX options hence it will go up when traders expect volatility to increase.

You can treat the VIX as a fear indicator. When traders are afraid that market will drop sharply, VIX will go up. The reverse is true. When traders are more complacent, thinking that market will continue to go up, VIX will be low.




In the chart, the red line is the VIX and the candlestick chart is the DOW Jones Industrial Index.

You can see that when the VIX spikes up in Aug 07, Nov 07 and Jan 08, the market managed to stage a rebound.

The VIX is now at 25.02, not a high value based on the past year data. It is now forming a symmetrical triangle pattern which means that market can either spike up or down. If the VIX is able to go below 25.02 next week, it will be a good sign and DOW should stage a rebound.

If the VIX goes down to around 20, then it is time to be more cautious.
My personal view is VIX should go below and test the 20 region again.

1 comment:

QUALITY STOCKS UNDER 4 DOLLARS said...

The dow jones industrials has been around for a long time but its now outdated.

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