You can view a chart of the VIX just as you can for any stock or index. Just go to the VIX page, add some moving averages, maybe even Bollinger Bands and RSI indicators and you are on your way. However, just because you can chart the VIX just like a stock, doesn’t mean you should actually read the chart just like a stock.
Charts for stocks and indices actually represent buying and selling over specific timeframes. Stocks gap up and down. Gaps get filled. Old resistance points can become new support levels, etc. However, VIX is not a stock. India VIX is a volatility index based on the NIFTY Index Option prices. From the best bid-ask prices of NIFTY Options contracts, a volatility figure (%) is calculated which indicates the expected market volatility over the next 30 calendar days. Hence, price points for the VIX doesn’t correspond to potential profits and losses of actual trades based on those levels. Support and resistance and trend lines and momentum effects all depend on the existence of buyers and sellers in the asset being analyzed. But you can’t trade VIX directly, so the VIX can never find “support” because no one previously bought VIX “shares” at that price level. VIX is, at best, an indicator of market expectation of volatility.
However, there are a few useful analysis you could run on VIX, given its tendency towards mean-reversion. Bollinger Bands and moving averages could help you gauge the band within which VIX is oscillating. Longer-term charts could help surface seasonal patterns. StockViz India VIX Charts are another tool in the arsenal for investors to help them make better decisions.
