Feb 4, 2016
Market volatility, at the atomic level
Volatility is millions of little choices made by a giant community of investors.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the day on January 15, 2016 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The current volatility of the stock market is complex and much-discussed. What is sometimes forgotten is that what actually makes up volatility is millions of little choices made by a giant community of investors, all placing different bets on where the market will go.
If one looks at market volatility like a physicist, the atoms are single moments, when an investor gets a piece of news. Listen to the audio story to go inside one of those moments.