Stock Market Tidbit – The Fear Index
This will be a quick post and I’m sorry for two off topic posts in one day. I recently learned about an Index on the stock market called the CBOE Market Volatility Index, VIX, also referred to as the fear index. An index that measures fear? Pretty whacky.
You can get VIX quotes from CNBC Money and although I don’t recommend watching it like a hawk 
if you have some money in the market that you control, like a play account at ShareBuilder, you might keep an eye on it.
From my understanding is that if the VIX goes up it means there could be a lot of volatility in the market. If the VIX is down investors seem to think that everything is ok and it won’t be as volatile. Back in Q4 2008 when the market was dropping like a rock the VIX was in the 50’s range for a while with spikes all the way to 80. The VIX seems to be normal, i.e. low volatility, around 20.
Sorry for the two off topic posts, but these two things just happened to peak my interest. As another off topic comment the Winter Olympics started today. I’m watching the men’s hockey this year and am cheering for Canadian Men’s Hockey Team this time, as I did the USA last Winter Olympics. If you haven’t watched Olympic hockey it’s actually pretty fun, I find it a little more action packed then the NHL.
