Traders Pay Steeper Price to Hedge Risk From Stocks to Gold

The narrow ranges — and rising risk premium — can be pinned on different factors depending on the market. “Fixed-strike volatility has actually increased quite a bit in the past few weeks, and implied volatility is elevated relative to realized volatility metrics,” said Robby Knopp, co-head of the S&P options desk at Optiver in Chicago. The difference between the VIX Constituent Volatility Index and the Cboe Volatility Index last week was the biggest since the end of January, and it’s near the top of the range over the past two years.