Hi Danielle,

I saw your clip and I have a question for you. Do you take the VIX into consideration also? When the market hit lows in October and again in November, the VIX spiked over 80. Now the S&P is close to the old lows but the VIX is in the low 40's. Does this indicate that the sentiment may be shifting and that we may be bottoming?

Thanks,
Parm

Yes the VIX is one of the metrics we track to monitor sentiment. When it was below 10 a year and half ago we knew people were a sleep and oblivious to the mounting risks in the world. When it spiked to over 80 in the fall, we knew that people had come to a very rude awakening. Above 40 is still high anxiety. In fact we used to say above 30 might show capitulation. But given the incredible heights on the VIX in the past 6 months. Above 40 is now looking almost calm. We prefer to see market gyrations get away from huge percent changes in a day. A subsiding VIX is one of the signs of stability coming back into the market as participants realize this will be no quick V. I see 40 as more constructive than 10 or 80. But it is still high here.