February 18, 2021

Volatility Reports 2/19/21

A “fragile” market suggests that any surprise big or small can set off a period of profit-taking.

As pointed out in a recent “VR,” our volatility model had turned mixed. That is important as our research is based on first principles, that form precedes real-world content, and that context precedes dynamics. Back a week or ten days the background was not reflecting complacency, so bearish expectations drop a notch, and when TEM primarily pointed to a low volatility persistent trend, that was not much help either for the bearish side.

That does not mean “risk-on,” the actuarial tables put this market on life support. Plus, just like the life of a loved one who is near the end, it is always a shock to the system when they pass no matter how much it was expected. At least in the back of one’s mind, it was just not today.

This work by Jack Cahn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International