​Vol As An Asset Class? Tough To Question What You Don’t Understand

I was always taught to look beyond the noise, but sometimes it can be challenging. This was the case when I was sent that typical article during a market selloff and vol spike that gets you all riled up. Many of you would have seen the article, which attempted to ‘leverage’ the collapse of the XIV, the potentially rapid changing nature of volatility ‘products’ and the systemic risk such products represent (while defending non-inverse and leveraged ETFs by the way) so to suggest that volatility is merely a subset of equities and not an asset class in its own right. Volatility ‘products’ (there’s that word again), meanwhile, are “dangerous,” as is the options market, according to the author of the article, while “repercussions” are forthcoming given the collapse of the XIV… With frustration ensuing, I thought I would once again channel the perspectives of those I believe to be volatility figureheads as to whether the early Feb vol spike signifies a vol regime shift and also give a bit of clarity to what you could conceive as volatility “products”, while reinforcing the argument or view (which I subscribe to) that volatility is an asset class.