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The VIX closed higher but for bears to get real traction it has to sustain levels in the low to mid 20's for more than a few hours. However, open interest in both puts and calls is falling suggesting there is no rush to buy protection. The move up in VIX, is actually mainly technical. VIX is calculated using a crunched volatility of the front two months. The October options expire the same day as the US run out of money, and are rapidly becoming binary in their outcome. Each day they hold their price and a day ticks away, the implied volatility goes up. But, the VIX contract rolls out into the next two months 8 days before the October expiry. So the VIX will be made up of Nov and December on Friday, rather than Oct and Nov. That should ease the divergence quite quickly from the lofty 19.5 % .