Dec VIX closing is very, very important!Monthly line charts are so simplistic; yet so important to analyze.
If you've read my previous DOW posts you know we are closely following the 2000-2002 bear market cycle vs. any other bear market and this chart further confirms my thoughts.
Notice how the VIX today (2017 to present) vs. the VIX 1994-2000 timeframe is diverging with the S&P. Both are making higher highs and higher lows until something breaks. In the 2000-2002 case we had the dot com bust (Rate of Change in very high risk/internet stocks plummeted) while today we have the Bond bust (Rate of Change within the bond market has plummeted). Towards the end of the VIX/S&P divergence (in the 2000-2002 case) the VIX ended up remaining "in trend" while the S&P lost about 46% over a 2 year period (see below chart). The VIX remaining "in-trend" for such a long period of time was a warning that something was going to break at some point and the indexes eventually lost a fair amount of value over a 2 year period.
In sum...my thoughts:
If we close Dec VIX below the blue dotted; Oct low will hold
If we close Dec VIX above the blue dotted line; Oct low will NOT hold.