When the market crashed in March, a lot of attention was paid to volatility. Market volatility is the variation of a trading price over time. The most common way to measure the variation of the price of the broader market is the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX. It measures option prices on the S&P 500. Volatility is also a tool that you can use to hedge your portfolio or trade for profits. For example, when volatility was low last winter, many traders and investors bought calls on the VIX or other volatility instruments as hedges. That way, if volatility spiked (usually causing stock prices to go lower), those who owned calls would offset losses in their stock portfolios or profit in a short-term trade. The VIX is a sentiment indicator. When it's high, investors are fearful. When it's low, they're complacent. When the market crashed in March, the VIX soared to its highest level since the financial crisis of 2008. An astute investor may have seen this as a sign of panic and that the market was likely to stop falling. In fact, it did. The market bottomed a week later. Traders who don't want to deal with company earnings reports, reactive CEO tweets, or analyst upgrades and downgrades can just trade volatility on the indexes. That way, the only thing that matters is whether volatility goes up or down. It simplifies the trading process, and the trader has to follow only one index. | 
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