CHART OF THE DAY: 3 Buckets Of Volatility

While the NASDAQ (QQQ) took a peek at the really-bad-word-bucket of Volatility yesterday, the SP500 didn’t even try to go there. As a reminder The (think a letter that comes after E) Bucket is when the VIX ramps > 30 and stays there.

According to me, there are 3 Buckets of Volatility (let’s use VIX as the easiest example):

A) The Investable Bucket = VIX 9-18, where you can buy every damn dip and make money in SPY
B) The Chop Bucket = VIX high teens to high 20s, where you can get chopped up if you can’t fade/trade
C) The Bad Word Bucket = VIX > 30 going towards 80, where levered long dip buyers die

Unlike most people who have been bearish (the whole way up) on things like “valuation”, money-printing, and Variant Narratives that span debts to government defaults and now viruses, I have experience accurately calling bear markets.