VIX volatility index, daily, 2024 to 2026
VIX volatility index, daily stood at 15 in 2026, up 0.5% on the previous period.
The VIX closed at 52.33 on April 8, 2025, the highest reading of this window, at the peak of the tariff selloff. The other dark clusters each mark a named event: August 5, 2024 (38.57, the yen carry-trade unwind) and late March 2026 (31.05 on March 27, Middle East escalation and sticky services inflation).
How it is measured
The VIX is the Cboe Volatility Index: the market's expectation of S&P 500 volatility over the next 30 days, derived from index option prices and stated in annualized percent. One value per trading day, the closing level, via FRED. Weekends and market holidays have no reading and show as empty cells. Levels under 15 read as calm, the high teens as normal, above 30 as fear, and above 50 as panic seen only a handful of times in the index's history.
What the calendar shows
Three years, three shapes of fear. 2024 shows the single stripe: one close above 30 all year, the August 5 unwind, inside the calmest year of the window (median 14.6). April 2025 is the panic month: seven of the window's eight highest closes, including all four above 40, landed there, most in a single week. And March 2026 is the slow cluster, a patch that darkens over weeks rather than a spike. Everything between runs pale, which is the honest shape of volatility: long calm, short storms.
What does the VIX measure?
What was the highest VIX close in this window?
What counts as a high VIX?
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