with the cost of protection so high, traders are looking for cheaper alternatives. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-17/here-stealthy-way-some-are-betting-market-crash
Smart money has been protecting themselves for a while now, the writings been on the wall. I especially like the graph of the implied volatility.. Lately it's been hard to find good volatility driven trades and my profitable trades were in place months ago, harder to find good trades of late.
There's always trades/money to be made in the market...regardless of if it's going up, down or flat. -- I hate when I read comments like these, that there's no opportunities.