"Serious question, is anyone watching this carefully and trying to determine when things will bottom out (perhaps in a week or two), to buy stocks, ETFs, and such at the bottom of the dip?"
I am watching very carefully to see if the VIX goes to an outlandish number, such as 90 or 100. To give some context, the all-time high of the VIX was ~80 during the 2008 financial crisis, etc.
It is a fools errand to try to predict, and make bets upon, the VIX.
However, while we can't say anything for certain about how long markets can stay calm or how long markets can stay euphoric, we can say with some certainty that you can't panic sell forever. Your hair can only be on fire for a little while. You can only throw yourself off the top of a building once.
So if you believe you see a VIX-crisis-top it is a very good bet that the movement from there will be in only one direction and very precipitous.
VIX converges long-term towards 0, so you will be successful investing in this instrument only for very short periods of times with close to perfect market timing...
I am watching very carefully to see if the VIX goes to an outlandish number, such as 90 or 100. To give some context, the all-time high of the VIX was ~80 during the 2008 financial crisis, etc.
It is a fools errand to try to predict, and make bets upon, the VIX.
However, while we can't say anything for certain about how long markets can stay calm or how long markets can stay euphoric, we can say with some certainty that you can't panic sell forever. Your hair can only be on fire for a little while. You can only throw yourself off the top of a building once.
So if you believe you see a VIX-crisis-top it is a very good bet that the movement from there will be in only one direction and very precipitous.
IANA*.