VIX: It Has Been a Heck of a Week

Per Bloomberg:

The VIX, as the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index is known, increased 17 percent to 81.13 at 11:14 a.m. in New York after earlier rising to 81.17. The index measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which lost 4.5 percent. The S&P 500 tumbled 9 percent yesterday. Today's VIX record eclipsed the peak of 76.94 on Oct. 10, when U.S. stocks completed their worst week since the 1930s.

Source: Yahoo Finance