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S&P 500 · § IV
VIX · S&P 500 Fear Index

VIX · S&P 500 Fear Index — VIX — The Insurance Tab

VIX fear gauge — The option market's insurance premium on stocks — a mood thermometer.

A market-implied measure of 30-day volatility. VIX above 30 means investors are already paying to hedge the next risk event.

View the interactive chart Download raw JSON

What this page answers

The latest reading for VIX is 16.73 (2026-07-16). The series starts 1990-01-02 and holds 9230 observations; the long-run mean is 19.44, the all-time high 82.69 (2020-03-16) and the low 9.14 (2017-11-03).

A market-implied measure of 30-day volatility. VIX above 30 means investors are already paying to hedge the next risk event. The data is refreshed by the History of Market pipeline and published as a stable JSON endpoint for research, citation, and AI-agent use.

Latest Snapshot

Updated
2026-07-17
Latest value
16.732026-07-16
Observations
9,230
Sample
1990-01-02 – 2026-07-16

VIX — year-end readings

VIX — year-end readings
DateValue
2026-07-1616.73
2025-12-3114.95
2024-12-3117.35
2023-12-2912.45
2022-12-3021.67
2021-12-3117.22
2020-12-3122.75
2019-12-3113.78
2018-12-3125.42
2017-12-2911.04
2016-12-3014.04
2015-12-3118.21
2014-12-3119.20
2013-12-3113.72
2012-12-3118.02
2011-12-3023.40
2010-12-3117.75
2009-12-3121.68
2008-12-3140.00
2007-12-3122.50
2006-12-2911.56
2005-12-3012.07
2004-12-3113.29
2003-12-3118.31
2002-12-3128.62
2001-12-3123.80
2000-12-2926.85
1999-12-3024.76
1998-12-3124.42
1997-12-3124.01
1996-12-3120.92
1995-12-2912.52
1994-12-3013.20
1993-12-3111.66
1992-12-3112.57
1991-12-3119.31
1990-12-3126.38

Showing the 37 most recent of 9230 observations — the full series is in the JSON: https://historyofmarket.com/api/sp500/vix.json

Static Preview

VIX — The Insurance Tab Chart

Data & Source

GET /api/sp500/vix.json — Canonical dataset endpoint.

Yahoo Finance · Macrotrends · Robert Shiller · FRED · S&P Global · Nasdaq · NBER.

FAQ

What is the latest VIX reading?

16.73 as of 2026-07-16. The long-run average is 19.44.

What period does the VIX data cover?

1990-01-02 through 2026-07-16 — 9230 observations.

Where does this data come from?

History of Market combines public market and macro datasets including Yahoo Finance, Macrotrends, Robert Shiller, FRED, S&P Global, Nasdaq, and NBER. The exact endpoint for this panel is linked below.

How often is it updated?

Daily-tier datasets refresh after the U.S. market close, with a broader weekly refresh on Sunday. The timestamp shown on this page comes from the JSON payload.

Can I use the data?

Yes, for research and education with attribution to History of Market. Upstream data sources retain their own terms.