VIX volatility

VIXCBOE

14.87▼-3.75%over 1 month

The market's expectation of S&P 500 volatility over the next thirty days, derived from option prices. It is a measure of expected movement, not direction.

Price history

Last close 2026-09-25

Return by period

1M▼-3.75%

3M▼-21.28%

6M▼-41.29%

1Y▼-11.17%

5Y▼-29.53%

Risk

Trailing year

Annualised volatility125.5%

Largest drawdown-54.2%

Period high31.05

Period low13.47

Position in range

Trailing year

of the way from the year’s low to its high.

13.4731.05

Historical context

254 sessions

Volatility102.6%
32nd percentile of the last 234 readings — below typical. Annualised from the last twenty sessions, then ranked against the same calculation on every twenty-session window of the past year.
Latest session-5.11%
58th percentile of the last 253 readings — typical. Ranked on size and not direction, so an unusually large fall reads as unusual rather than as a low return.
Five sessions+0.41%
51st percentile of the last 249 readings — typical. Ranked among every five-session change of the past year, direction included.
Twenty sessions+3.05%
62nd percentile of the last 234 readings — above typical. Ranked among every twenty-session change of the past year, direction included.

A percentile is the share of the past year’s readings at or below the current one. The multi-session rows keep direction, so a high rank there means a strong rise; volatility and the latest session are ranked on size alone, so a high rank means a large move either way. All of it describes how ordinary today is by this instrument’s own standards, which is a statement about the record and not about what happens next.

Reported context

Written by sonar-pro

Recent reports place the VIX in the mid-teens, with readings including 14.21 on 23 September and 14.89 on 25 September. Reports describe a low-volatility market regime, with the VIX futures curve in contango and the index remaining below recent three-month ranges. Commentary also says uncertainty over the Middle East, oil prices, Treasury yields and possible Federal Reserve rate increases has persisted, while equity volatility has remained relatively contained.

Sources

Generated from the figures on this page and published reporting. It describes what has been reported and is not advice, a recommendation, or a forecast. Written 25 Sept, 21:11 UTC.

Reported context

Writing

Published reporting on this move is being gathered now, and the explanation for it will replace this line as soon as the model has finished writing. Published reporting on this move is being gathered now, and the explanation for it will replace this line as soon as the model has finished writing. Published reporting on this move is being gathered now, and the explanation for it will replace this line as soon as the model has finished writing. Published reporting on this move is being gathered now, and the explanation for it will replace this line as soon as the model has finished writing.

Sources

What these figures mean

Written by gpt-5.4-mini

The 125.5% annualised volatility means the price has tended to move a lot relative to its level, with changes over a year that are very large compared with many other instruments. The largest peak-to-trough fall of -54.2% means that at one point the price dropped by just over half from a previous high before later moving again. With the current price 9% of the way from the low to the high, it is much closer to the period low of 13.47 than to the period high of 31.05, and the trailing-year return of -10.3% means it ended the year lower than it started.

A plain-English restatement of the calculated figures shown above, with no external information used. Written 25 Sept, 17:20 UTC.

What these figures mean

Writing

Other volatilitys

Figures are calculated from closing prices and exclude dividends, coupons and the cost of rolling futures contracts. Volatility is annualised using 252 trading days. Past movement describes what happened and implies nothing about what happens next.