Why you’ve been reading the stock market’s ‘fear gauge’ all wrong

Low VIX levels don’t mean the bull market is over

The worry warts interpret the VIX in a contrarian way, which means that they believe this widespread absence of fear is a bad sign.

...the historical data do not support their interpretation of the VIX. The stock market’s performance following low VIX readings is no worse, on average, than it is after higher readings.

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