Back to Normal Felt Anything But Average for Stock Bulls in 2018
- Average daily VIX in 2018 was 16.6, roughly the median year
- The year-over-year change in volatility is among biggest ever
This article is for subscribers only.
As bad as it repeatedly has seemed, in the end 2018 really was a ho-hum year for stock turbulence. So why did it feel so harrowing? Simple. Because of how abnormally calm things were in the past.
Going by one indicator, the average daily value for the Cboe Volatility Index, 2018 isn’t far from the median year in terms of the size of equity swings over the past quarter century. The VIX averaged 16.6 over the 250 trading days, the 12th-lowest reading since 1993.