Market Metrics and Trends

Monthly Metrics

Volatility (VIX): Monthly average 17.05; +1.8% M/M, +22.3% Y/Y
S&P 500 (Price): Monthly average 6,038.69; +1.0% M/M, +20.5% Y/Y
Performance (month/year): Best = cons S/healthcare +5.6%/+8.1; worst = cons D/cons D, -9.4%/-5.4%
Equity ADV: Monthly average 15.6 billion shares; +1.2% M/M, +33.1% Y/Y
Options ADV: Monthly average 57.5 million contracts; +2.7% M/M, +20.5% Y/Y

Monthly Highlight

To say a lot has happened this year would be an understatement. While it feels like volatility is – or at least should
be – up significantly this year, it really is not.
Yes, February closed with the VIX peaking in the 20s, +19.5% to end the month. However, the slope of the line is only slightly upward sloping; on average volatility remained muted but has been quite volatile itself.
Tariff policy, economic data points, and technology stock performance are among the factors driving volatility, and these factors marked the VIX peaks over the last two months. For example, January 10 VIX peaked this month at 19.54 on the DeepSeek news.
The VIX remains muted to historical levels. Looking back to 1990, YTD VIX ranked #19 (out of 36 years), remaining lower than almost all averages, except the 3-year pre-COVID average: -12.9% to 1990, +17.6% to pre COVID.

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Katie Kolchin, CFA
Managing Director, Head of Research
SIFMA Insights

Previous Reports

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