Who Knows More: The S&P 500 Options or Financial Pundits?

By now the major media outlets have made sure to inform the public that the U.S. government is shut down, or partially shut down depending on your political perspective. Most financial pundits are looking to the recent past for clues about what to expect in the future.

While the situation appears to be similar to what we witnessed in 2011 with the debt ceiling debacle, the outcomes may be significantly different. I am a contrarian trader by nature, and as such I am constantly expecting for markets to react in the opposite way from what the majority of investors expect.

A significant number of financial pundits and writers all have a similar perspective about what is likely to occur. It seems most of the financial punditry believe that until there is a resolution in the ongoing government debacle, market participants should expect volatility to persist. Some of the talking heads are even calling for a sharp selloff if no decision on the debt ceiling is made by early next week.

The debt ceiling decision needs to be made by midnight on October 17th otherwise the first ever default on U.S. government debt could occur. Thus far, the volatility index (VIX) has moved higher as investors and money managers use the leverage in VIX options to hedge their long exposure.

As can be seen here, we are seeing the VIX trade at the second highest levels so far in 2013.....Read the entire article "Who Knows More: The S&P 500 Options or Financial Pundits?"



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