OK, top to bottom here we have volatility charts of BTU, POT, and MA.

Even though they are in disparate industries, the stocks behaved kind of similarly this year. Basically up, but with a few violent shakeouts along the way. Including one’s they are in right now.

And volatility pretty strong in all three. Most pronounced in BTU, which also had the quickest plowage in the stock itself, down 12% in under a week.

POT probably most interesting though in that as you can see, the stock itself never got all that volatile. The decline off the highs was relatively orderly, although net-net it dropped an impressive 20% or so top to bottom in about a 3 week time span.

So we have modest volatility spikes in momo names, and big spikes in everything financial. Where don’t we see much? How about tech. That’s a relatively peaceful spot in 2008, and options act accordingly.