One glance at the shocking headlines over the first quarter of 2017 and one would imagine intense volatility in the world's capital markets - from the leader of the free world being 'managed' by Putin to North Korean Nukes; and from Fed rate hikes to the rise of populism in Europe. But that would be entirely wrong - Q1 2017 was the calmest for US stocks since 2006...
Just a week ago, it looked as if the dormant CBOE Volatility Index was awakening.
Fast-forward five days, as Bloomberg reports, VIX is closing in on its lowest quarterly average since the final months of 2006. The measure has lost 18 percent this year through Thursday as the S&P 500 Index climbed 5.8 percent.
Given the epic flows of retail money chasing any and everything higher, one wonders how prophetic the timing of the last nadir of this level was...