Yes, bottom is finally in. I am going all in and invest my money. This is it, the bottom. Buy GS, V, AAPL, GOOG. Then thank me later. Hammer on the chart there, can you see it? New bull market is about to begin from now on.
Nobody who survives the markets over the long term picks bottoms. Why do you think that is? (Btw, candlestick patterns mean zippo during highly volatile times.)
Very good observation DSQ! There are actually better tools. As you implied, Vix/etc rely on exceptional circumstances, but predictive tools exist for normal as well as exceptional cicumstances. People keep them for themselves. More details are on RFT's financial traders blog. regards