{"id":241626,"date":"2026-04-16T09:25:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibkrcampus.com\/campus\/?post_type=glossary-terms&p=241626"},"modified":"2026-04-16T09:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T13:25:40","slug":"socially-acceptable-volatility","status":"publish","type":"glossary-terms","link":"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.com\/campus\/glossary-terms\/socially-acceptable-volatility\/","title":{"rendered":"Socially Acceptable Volatility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A term coined by Barron\u2019s columnist Steve Sears, refers to the psychological tendency for options traders to adjust their volatility assumptions differently depending upon the direction of a market\u2019s move, and for stock investors to incorrectly analyze strong stock advances.\u00a0Measures of expected and implied volatility, such as the Cboe\u2019s VIX, tend to rise when stocks fall but remain unchanged or even decline when stocks rise by a similar amount.\u00a0 This is in spite of the fact that measures of actual volatility, such as historical and realized volatility, do not account for a move\u2019s direction.\u00a0 The phenomenon of Socially Acceptable Volatility occurs because rising stock prices make most everyone happy, but downward moves are perceived as distressing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Measures of expected and implied volatility, such as the Cboe\u2019s VIX, tend to rise when stocks fall but remain unchanged or even decline when stocks rise by a similar amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"traders-glossary":[13251],"class_list":{"0":"post-241626","1":"glossary-terms","2":"type-glossary-terms","3":"status-publish","5":"traders-glossary-trading-alphabet"},"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArchives Term | IBKR Glossary | IBKR Campus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Measures of expected and implied volatility tend to rise when stocks fall but remain unchanged or even decline when stocks rise by a similar amount.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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