George Soros, full-time trader, generous philanthropist, political activist, author when it suits him and part-time philosopher, once said that, "short-term volatility is greatest at turning points and diminishes as a trend becomes established."
The VIX, or the CBOE Volatility Index, is a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. The VIX has made some rapid moves this year and the past few days have been no exception. We typically look at daily and weekly charts when we analyze stocks for Real Money, but we found this morning that if we wanted to grasp the recent swings in the VIX, we needed to look at an intraday chart, below.
In this 15-minute, 10-day chart of the VIX, above, we can see the run-up from 14 to 23 and nearly all the way back again. Not for the faint of heart, as they say. If Soros' observation about the VIX is correct, then the S&P 500 has begun a new uptrend. Will the SPX break out over its high of 2193.81? I'm not that sure, but we should find out fairly soon.
