Just four days ago, traders were complaining about a lack of market volatility.
NO ONE COMES OUT and says this -- because it is like wishing for a train wreck -- but many traders secretly long for a return of volatile volatility. For the past 18 months, volatility has declined, making it difficult to generate outsized returns.
If the financial markets were to convulse, stock prices would paroxysm, options prices would inflate with fear, and all this would create enormous trading opportunities. In essence, everyone really wants to recreate the volatility conditions that allowed many investors to realize massive, once-in-a-lifetime returns when the Standard & Poor's 500 Index bottomed in March 2009, and then surged higher.
How many billions of dollars did Goldman Sachs earn today by deliberately manipulating your 401(k)s? How many more coincidences do people need before realizing that Wall Street isn't a gambling casino: It's an outright fraud.
