Has Investor Complacency Doomed the Markets?
The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index , commonly referred to as the VIX, is a predictive gauge for the expected market volatility for the next 30 days. It's also sometimes called the "investor fear gauge." And today, that "fear gauge" is at an all-time low after plunging in the wake of the fiscal-cliff deal, when a lot of alleged market "uncertainty" was alleviated. In this video, Motley Fool financial analysts Morgan Housel and Matt Koppenheffer scrutinize some of the common folk wisdom about the VIX, including the idea that extremely low levels of investor fear predicate a market pullback -- and whether the VIX is even a good gauge of investor fear at all.
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The article Has Investor Complacency Doomed the Markets? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Matt Koppenheffer has no position in any stocks mentioned. Morgan Housel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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