The volatility space continues to expand in the direction of the atomic level, with an announcement this week by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (NASDAQ: CBOE) that it will begin disseminating implied volatility data utilizing the VIX calculation methodology for five stocks as of Friday, January 7.
The five stocks are:
- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN): volatility ticker: VXAZN
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL): volatility ticker: VXAPL
- Google (NASDAQ: GOOG): volatility ticker: VXGOG
- Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS): volatility ticker: VXGS
- IBM (NYSE: IBM): volatility ticker: VXIBM
My initial thoughts:
- It will be interesting to see how much divergence there will be between the CBOE NASDAQ-100 Index (.NDX) and the volatility indices for some of the key components of the NASDAQ-100 index, notably Apple, Google and Amazon.
- A Goldman Sachs volatility index will be particularly useful in terms of financial crisis.
- IBM is an interesting choice for a fifth wheel here as the best stock pick, as IBM does not have the same bellwether status that it once did.
- Finally, first with weekly options and now with volatility indices for individual stocks, the CBOE has managed to shorten the scope of volatility analysis both at the issue level and in terms of the time frame. I’m calling this the march toward atomic volatility.
Bill Luby writes the VIX and More blog.
