Massive rise in volatility today

One of the great trades of the past 8 years has been betting against volatility. It's the Long Term Capital Management thesis and it's one of those things that works incredibly, until it doesn't.

LTCM ended in disaster but it was a much bigger jump in volatility than we've had in the past week.

For some perspective, here's the long-term look at the VIX. It's at 24.42, up 7 points today. Even with that and last week's rise, the index would have to double again to reach the highs of 2010, 2011 and 2015. It would have to rise another 30% to reach the smaller series of highs from 2014-2016.

So it's a rough time in terms of volatility but until the VIX gets to at least 30, selling it isn't that attractive.