Can’t Lose
Those old enough to remember "vol-pocalypse" (so, anyone over three, which covers all institutional investors, at least half of Wall Street and around a quarter of Robinhood users), might recall that the implosion of the VIX ETN complex was preceded by an unprecedented stretch of market calm.
That prolonged quiescence is enshrined in market lore as "the short vol bubble." Janet Yellen was the sponsor. The poster child was a former Target logistics manager famously profiled in The New York Times
Subscriber since 2018, this is my favorite sentence of yours yet:
“And don’t forget that mega-tech is all set to report their quarterly compendium of unfathomably large numbers. ”
It’s just the use of language I’m celebrating here, nothing message specific.
I try
“ [Insert lazy, generic ‘What could go wrong?’ punchline]”
That was a great punchline I am still chuckling
I am also a fan of H’s use of language. He is an excellent writer which I am happy to say even if we disagree on a lot of things. One point I thought he might have missed was that ahead of the Vol Apocalypse, the Fed made substantial changes to their Severely Adverse Scenario relative to the 2017 version which might have sent shivers down the spines of those in charge of risk and possibly motivated them to buy a lot of VIX or downside protection so that they might escape the watchful eye of regulators when they reported their exposure on this survey.