JPMorgan strategists advise buying VIX upside ahead of US midterms

A major sell-side desk publicly recommending VIX upside is notable because it signals that election risk is being treated as underpriced rather than as a routine calendar event. The call ties electoral uncertainty to the same macro backdrop already pressuring markets — rates, fuel prices and AI-driven disruption — meaning a volatility bid would not be isolated to the vote itself. Whether implied volatility stays subdued into the vote, or reprices toward the pre-election pattern JPMorgan cites, is the open question for positioning across risk assets.