VXX is up by over 10% as of the time of writing. Its intra-day high was $27.64 (up ~13.9%). In the meantime, the world markets are in the red: (Source: Google Finance) Energy led the pack, as oil broke below $30 and trades slightly above $29: (Source: Google Finance) I ran numbers on VXX since its inception on January 2009 and found out that the index had swings of over 10% in 1.9% of time (or in 34 days out of 1,752 trading days). In general, VXX's distribution function resembles a normal distribution but has fatter tails: (Data from Yahoo Finance. Infographics by author) As a result, my option strategies are up 41% (the out-of-money strategy) and 19% (the at-the-money money strategy) at the time of writing. Implied Volatility is at a three-year high: (Source: Google Finance) In the last five years, VXO stayed above $25 only 9.4% of time (118 days out of 1260 trading days). In the last three years, VXO closed above $25 only 2.7% of time (20 days out of 756 trading days). VIX is up almost 13%, according to Bloomberg Terminal: How many spikes above $27 do use see? According to my calculations, VIX closed above $27 per unit only 7.7% of time in the last five years and slightly above 1% in the last 3 years!Now this is significant. I think something major should happen over the weekend: the markets should either calm down or the volatility should pick up. As of now, IV picked up for my calls: (Source: Yahoo Finance) ...and my puts: (Source: Yahoo Finance) I am going to go into the weekend with open positions on my options strategies. The biggest risk for me right now is a potential decline in IV. AppendixHere are the Greeks for options: Call option with a strike of $28: Delta is up, Gamma is down, Vega is up. Call option with a strike of $23: Delta is up, Gamma is down, Vega is down. Put option with a strike of $23: Delta is down (absolute value), Gamma is down, Vega is down. Put option with a strike of $18: Delta is down (absolute value), Gamma is down, Vega is down. Do you think something major is coming in the near future? The market thinks so.