take the 80/20 rule as an example, 80 sideways years and 20 trend years and within each year 80% sideways days and 20% trend days - what i am saying is that during these huge sideways times/ranges, the surge in liquidity and information and execution efficiency will continue to result in relatively lower volatility than in the past. on the other hand, huge liquidity has probably caused already and will continue to cause further over-leveraging.. and when it evaporates in case of significant events, it will probably produce volatility relatively greater than in the past, especially if it effects the unwinding of derivatives and global financial inter-relationships.