The world is set to abruptly end in three days, and traders around the world are not preparing to do anything different on the following Monday. Harold Camping‘s bunch have predicted the end of all life as we know it to happen within 72 hours in some parts of the world. On Saturday May 21st 2011 the rapture is set to kick off, but what do top stock pickers fancy in the end of times?
One key signal that it’s business as usual in the run up to Armageddon is the VIX. The fear index computes the likely volatility of the S&P 500 in the coming 30 days. Looking back to 30 days before the end of life as we know it, the index was hovering around 18, and it’s just below that today. This is a clear signal that investors aren’t looking for a run on the banks or any significant disaster plays being made before Saturdays.
One hypothesis says that the traders are a godless bunch, and may not actually believe prune-cheeked Camping’s prophecy. His last end of world prediction was in 1994, and the VIX wasn’t born until 2 years later so it’s hard to determine any correlation between market sentiment and the potential demise of civilization.
Many speculators are expected to rush to purchase JC2 in Friday early trading. JC2 is the symbol for Lyris Inc, ostensibly an email marketing company that many insiders believe is a front for the owners of the exclusive media rights to the second coming of christ.
Wolfgang Maasberg, CEO of Lyris and often rumored to be the puppet master behind Harold Camping’s media machinations, was unavailable for comment earlier this morning.
Disclosure: the author is long on JC2.