Hedge Funds Aggressively Sell Volatility, Treasuries and Ags

Hedge funds seem convinced that stock market is going through a lull period or at least that is what the level of negative bets on S&P 500’s volatility index shows. Societe Generale’s Hedge Fund Watch notes that hedge funds have bet a large number of shorts on VOLATILITY S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) futures. The total number of short contracts were up to 104,000 contracts, just below the December 2012 peak. This seems a very crowded bet considering the fact that markets are expected to once again slip into turmoil as Fed’s mid-September meeting takes place. After the recent lull in VIX, the index is once again looking up and has gone above to 13.5% now.

At the same time, longs...