HOW TO UNDERSTAND VOLATILITY IN THE STOCK MARKET
The fourth quarter of 2018 was a reminder that financial markets can go both up and down. Some days we saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average swing 1,000 points in both directions — up and down and down and up. We also saw the CBOE Volatility Index, the market measure of potential volatility, increase from 12.12 on Sept. 28 to 25.42 on Dec. 31 — a whopping 100 percent increase.