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Brexit fallout hammered most corners of the stock market on the morning of June 24, but the spike in trading and volatility was a silver lining for some broker/dealers.
Fevered overnight activity in futures caused a 5% drop in the S&P 500 futures market, in turn triggering a brief trading halt. CBOE Holdings Inc.'s VIX, often called the "fear index" because it measures volatility in the S&P 500, spiked 27.7% from 17.6 at the close June 23 to an open of 23.9 the next morning. After dipping to below 20, it rose again, which could indicate that the impacts of the U.K.'s departure are not yet clear to the market. Usually, the passage of a widely anticipated event causes volatility to smooth out somewhat, one options trader based in Chicago said in an interview.
"It's interesting that we're seeing the VIX at elevated levels afterward and remain at these levels," the person said. "23 for an after-event [volatility] is very high."
By comparison, the index moved above 28 during the market correction in...