Here's a 24hr ext VXX chart with the Cumulative Volume Delta indicator. The Chicago Board Option Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index was introduced by Cboe Global Markets, Incorporated in 1993. Simply referred to as 'the VIX', it is a market index that measures the implied volatility of the S&P 500 Index (SPX) – the core index for U.S. equities. In real-time, it represents the market’s expectations for volatility over the coming 30 days.
VXX spiked to a high of 91 on Monday 8/5/24 with today's 8/6/24 low of 62. In the past few weeks there's been domestic political uncertainty, geopolitical risks, recession fears, FOMC continued high rates, Mega cap tech earnings, Jeff Bezos sold 8,645,380 AMZN shares for 200.12 on 6/11/24, Warren Buffet sold 390 million of AAPL shares and the unwinding of the yen-funded carry trade reverberated through global markets.
I'm no expert, but it sure feels like the S&P 500 has not bottomed out yet, which means VXX could hit 100 before all of this is over. VXX is used as a tool to hedge your portfolio when there's short term downside risk. Some traders take advantage of the volatility to make a profit on a trade. Since you can't trade options for put protection outside of regular market hours and most people don't have futures accounts, I think VXX shares can be very helpful if there's another downside volatile pre or post market day in the future.