Below is a chart highlighting the 50-day moving average of the absolute daily % change of the S&P 500. In late 2008, this volatility indicator peaked at its highest level in the history of the S&P 500 when the index was averaging a gain or loss of more than 4% every day over the prior 50 days. It is truly unprecedented for the overall market cap of US stocks to be moving up or down 4% every single day, but that is what happened. Since then the market has cooled down, however, and the S&P 500 is now having daily moves of only +/-1.57% over the last 50-days. Historically this is still a very high level, but compared to where we were, it seems like nothing. As shown in the bottom chart, we also just broke below the lows in volatility that we saw in February.
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