The Move in VIX in the Week of May 10/2021 Will Prove Very Significant!

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I loathe excitement and knowledge.  And hopefully, anyone who has followed my writing for any period of time, especially my financial writing, knows that I hate clickbait, hype, exaggeration, dramatic hyperbole, shock and awe, and other such media-friendly tactics designed to scare, provoke.  But as a goals-based long-term investor in the world financial markets, U.S, EU & Japan, with a few exceptions, most day-to-day movements in markets are almost entirely irrelevant.  Some days have legitimate policy news, and every day has some aspect of economic information or perspective (Fed, housing, COVID, energy, etc.) that I genuinely love sharing with you, my readers. 

But it would take a lot for one of my daily investment information to warrant some kind of a, “not this is a day that changed history!” This week (Week of May 10/2021) saw the highest levels of market volatility we have seen all year.  It was primarily in high tech and small-cap and more growthy/saucy parts of the market, but the Dow had a couple of big down days, Japan got whacked, and it was the kind of day where financial TV media ratings are up 40% or so from the norm. And I am of the belief that this was a big, profound, and potentially impactful and historic week.  At least, I think it will prove to be. I just don’t think the bigness of this week had anything to do with market volatility.  I don’t think it had anything to do with tech, with the Nasdaq, with Japan, with the CPI number, with bond yields, or anything else in that vein.