The scariest Halloween costume imaginable pales in comparison to a Friday inversion of the VIX futures curve. A severe sell-off in technology stocks has pushed the front-month VIX futures contract to a premium relative to the second-month contract. VIX futures are based off the Cboe Volatility Index, a measure of 30-day implied volatility for the S&P 500 Index that’s often called the “fear gauge.” Typically, the curve is in contango -- that is, upward sloping -- because the outlook for U.S. equities is more uncertain over longer time periods than shorter ones. The historical pattern of realized volatility shows it’s ... (full story)