Hi guys, I have been trading for about 7 years and God things are different now. Black boxes, dark pools, and institutional abilility to hedge risk much better are just a few of the reasons that volatility is so low. Interest rates and the carrry trade are not helping things either. Money can be borrowed extremely cheap to implement penny seeking black box programs. This will slow down imo. Remember these hedge funds are seeking something finite. (they are increasingly seeking lower and lower profits per trade.) and are driving themselves and their competitors out of the business. On the flip side I am trading well by not follwing the indexes and getting caught up in that game. I find oppurtunity almost everday in a few stocks with an average daily range greater than 3 points (ice,oih,gs,goog,rimm,). Finally my mouth salivates everytime I see that historic chart of volatilty that myminitrading posts. It will go up at some point. LOL. Seriously.
Volatility cycles. It'll be back. Think LTCM. More money chasing tighter spreads. The last two days have pegged some of the lowest volatility in months actually if you want to quantify-- ONE OF THE LOWEST IN DECADES. Coils have energy. Today there was a modest yet lopsided advance in stocks yet no movement in the SP500. Fear of chasing a stretched market? We're gonna break one way or the other and soon.
Then again when El Jefe Grande talks about education and doesn't whisper in Maria's ear well... I guess the market just doesn't take notice.