Global market volatility spikes: Remarkable 17.3% increase in index options movements yesterday

Market volatility within S&P500 index options rocketed yesterday during the afternoon US session, reaching 27.42 points, which is a remarkable 17.3% increase compared with the start of the session.

VOLATILITY S&P 500 (INDEXCBOE:VIX) is a trademarked ticker symbol for the CBOE Volatility Index, a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options.

Market turbulance has been substantial over the last few months, especially with regard to equities and stocks, one of the factors which concerned Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs when advising CMC Markets with regard to its IPO, and a likely reason for the firm having entered the realms of the publicly listed companies with only 31% of its stock listing on the London Stock Exchange.

For day traders, however, the volatility is likely to be a welcome set of conditions, as the VIX index has spiked many times during the last few months.

Last month, the VIX index rose to a very high 31.36 during intraday trading, whilst in August last year, the peak was 40.7 points.

These spikes and continued sharp movements have been sustained, and are representative of pre-financial crisis figures; the highest ever spike having occurred in October 2008 when the WIX index accelerated to 79.2 points.

Analysts within electronic trading companies are taking a close look at these market conditions which are offering traders a very volatile market, especially at a time during which many FX and CFD firms are diversifying away from currencies and going down the multi-asset route.

Chart, courtesy of Google Finance