How Do You Interpret Volatility Swells?

With the averages taking another big hit to day, exactly how worried should we be? Now, i've been warning you that this market wiuld get a lot more difficult for a whole host of stocks since late in november. But what do we do now that they keep rolling over? The name of the game right now, of course, is volatility. In the middle of last week, the c b o e volatility index, also known as the vix stood at 17. To day, it's a 29.