Summary

• In March, the investing and risk management landscape didn’t just shift, it wobbled from challenging to precarious.
• The American and Israeli military campaign across Iran pushed energy prices to multi-year highs and inflation expectations went from benign to malignant.
• The Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) declined by nearly 5% in March alone. By the 29th of the month, NDX closed ~12% below all-time highs from five months prior.
• Between early February 2026 and early March, when hostilities in the Middle East percolated, the volatility spread between NDX out-of-the-money (OTM) put and OTM call moved from ~average (6.5) to 11 points wide on April 1.

By Kevin Davitt, Head of Options Content

Signal, Noise, and NDX Option Indicators

In March, the investing and risk management landscape didn’t just shift, it wobbled from challenging to precarious. During the first two months of 2026, the

514 Followers