Indicator 05

VIX Spike Meter

How stretched is fear, in sigmas. The dip-buyer's gauge.

Own pane · Daily first, works intraday · Any chart; the data comes from the VIX

The VIX Spike Meter scores the VIX against its own rolling mean and standard deviation, so the reading is in sigmas rather than raw points. Twenty is calm in one regime and panic in another; a sigma reading is comparable across both. Above one sigma equities are usually oversold, above two is capitulation territory.

What it shows

One line: how far the VIX sits from its own recent norm, in standard deviations.
Three shaded zones: above 1 sigma (equities oversold), above 1.5 (fear zone), above 2 (capitulation).
Markers and alerts when the gauge crosses into each zone.
Optional complacency zones on the low side.

How it reads the market

Raw VIX levels mean different things in different regimes; 20 can be calm one year and panic another. Scoring the VIX against its own rolling mean and deviation turns it into a regime-aware stretch gauge: the deeper the sigma, the more washed out equities usually are.

Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
VIX symbol	CBOE:VIX	Remappable if your feed names it differently.
Smoothing	5	Takes the jitter out of the raw line.
Z-score window	100 bars	The lookback that defines 'normal' for the current regime.
Zone thresholds	1 / 1.5 / 2 sigma	Where the oversold, fear and capitulation zones start.

Everything is an input: colors, thresholds and time windows adjust from the indicator's settings panel, no code needed.

Built-in alerts

Crossed 1 sigma
Crossed 1.5 sigma (fear)
Crossed 2 sigma (capitulation)

Set them once from TradingView's alert dialog and get notified on your phone, no chart-watching required.

Comes with the membership

The whole indicator suite is included with the paid plan, $20/month or $200/year. Subscribe, submit your TradingView username, and the scripts land in your TradingView library.

Get full access

How to add it to your chart

Request access above with your TradingView username (one request covers the whole suite).
We grant it on TradingView, usually within 24 hours; TradingView notifies you.
On your chart, open Indicators → Invite-only scripts and add VIX Spike Meter.

When to use it, and when not to

It earns its place when

You buy weakness and want to know whether fear is genuinely stretched or merely elevated.
You are sizing a dip buy and want the sigma to set how aggressive to be.
You need a regime-aware fear gauge rather than a fixed level that ages badly.

Leave it off the chart when

You want an entry signal. A stretched VIX says the rubber band is pulled, never when it snaps back.
The VIX is rising slowly on a structural repricing. Sigma readings assume a mean to revert to, and a regime change moves the mean.
You are short volatility already. This tells you the pain is extreme, which is not the same as telling you it is over.

Common questions

What VIX level counts as a spike?

There is no fixed level, which is the whole reason this exists. Twenty was panic in 2017 and a quiet Tuesday in 2022. Scoring against a hundred-bar rolling mean and deviation makes the reading comparable across regimes: one sigma is stretched, two is capitulation, whatever the raw print says.

Does a high VIX mean I should buy stocks?

Historically, extreme VIX readings cluster near short-term equity lows. Historically is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It tells you the odds have shifted, not that the low is in, and it says nothing about the days between here and the bottom.

What is the difference between this and the VIX Spike Radar?

This scores one input, the VIX itself, against its own history. The Radar combines four independent stress readings into a single dial. Use this for a fast read on fear, the Radar when you want to know how loaded the whole spring is.

Why use standard deviations instead of the raw VIX?

Because the raw number has no fixed meaning. A z-score answers the only question that matters: is this unusual for the market we are currently in?