By Erik Norland
Occasional brief spikes notwithstanding, volatility has been dormant across most asset classes (excluding energy) over the past eight years. Equities, fixed income products, currencies, metals and agricultural goods saw steep declines in implied volatility after 2010 and it that has generally remained at exceptionally low levels for the past several years. In the past few months, however, there have been signs that implied volatility might be in the early stages of a transition to much higher levels in the coming months or years across a wide range of assets.
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