(Bloomberg) -- For five years starting in 2013, it was a world of peace and tranquility for stock investors. Then came the tempests of February, convincing many of them that the days of calm were over.
By one measure, they just came back.
The Cboe Volatility Index closed below 14 for the first time since the equity-market meltdown three months ago triggered a record surge. The gauge, which uses options-trading data to measure implied volatility of S&P 500 stocks, peaked at 37.32 on Feb. 5., wiping out the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term exchange-traded notes and similar products that allowed investors to bet on continued market calm.
The volatility index, also known as the VIX, closed at 13.42 Wednesday, 8.5 percent below its five-year average. The S&P 500 advanced 1 percent, rising for the third time in four days as a risk-on tone spread through global markets after North Korea's good-will gesture of releasing captive U.S. citizens.
To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Richtmyer in New York at rrichtmyer@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arie Shapira at ashapira3@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper, Jeremy Herron
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