It’s one thing for volatility to cluster, episodically, then fade. It’s entirely another for a breakout in volatility to start to trend. We define @Hedgeye TRENDs as 3 months or more in terms of duration. 

As you can see in today’s Chart of The Day below from our full-time Volatility Analyst, Ben Ryan, what we have currently in Global Macro markets is a Trending Breakout In Volatility. 

For many US centric equity investors this is new. If you invest globally, far from it. 

As you can see in the table of volatility data: 

1. The move in Short-term Volatility (VSTN) for the SP500 just ripped +22.5% in the last week… whereas
2. The 3-month ramp in Global Equity, ex-KOSPI, has been broad-based 

As you move down the table you’ll obviously make your own observations but...