You have to include ETH volatility, the dow was gapping 200-400 points on a regular basis during the financial crisis and the euro debt crisis. I think weekly range is a more accurate indicator of volatility, just look at the huge range weekly bars on the SPX during those tumultuous years.
I have excluded overnight and eth gaps, because im an intra day trader. If i include them then the ranges become even bigger than shown and could give a false sense of how big the intra day moves are. RTH in US stocks (dow stocks anyway) are still relatively good this year, compared to period from mid 2003 to mid 2007. But not so good when compared to 2008 to 2011.
VIX acting crazy in last couple days. someone probably making a good money(or not) on those moves,that seems like out of touch with markets. market +/-1 %,VIX +/- 20%. crazy!
Not really bob, you see the same thing in options prices when there is uncertainty. Volatility can skyrocket and the stock price does basically nothing until some 'event' , you see this often with biotech. Vix was spiking on all the insurance buying, not the actual price moves.
It's just realignment due to the debt ceiling deal being reached. I assume there was a lot of protection being bought and sold at the time and the expected moves were always quite large independent of the result reached.