Who sets future prices on the margin

Is VIX Manipulated or Hedged?

VIX is the variance in futures pricing for a stock index.   

But the futures price of a stock is related to its own idiosyncratic volatility weighted by the safe rate. So, if the VIX is low, it is because the none year rate is known and all the future adjusted.  Who knows the one year rate before anyone else? The debt cartel,they are required by law to plan the government debt offerings, in secret.  These are the  triple entry TBTF bankers and their wealthy clients.  They are the ones manipulating VIX lower. 

So the TBTF bankers adjust futures betting on behalf of wealth using the surplus after the government interest charges are covered. However, they are subject to shocks, they are a value added chain.  Like the hurricanes and the tax bill and the spending bill caught the TBTF to engage in a requant of the value chain, that shot up VIX as a quantization cost. There was a configuration change, likely a lot of wealth left the cartel for greener atures after the tax cut.

In the sandbox we do not eliminate the TBTF system, we automate and fair trade it so anyone can participate if they get a badge for triple entry accounting, maintaining a government seigniorage stream.  The TBTF notary will be on the job.

Here we see Goldman-Sachs setting future rates for its retail clients, after full consultation with the TBTF cartel:

Then last Friday, Goldman revised its 10-year bond yield forecasts by around 20bp across the board - in part due to revised growth and inflation expectations - and now projects 3.25% for US Treasuries, 1.0% for Bunds, 2.0% for Gilts and 10bp for JGBs (the bank kept the peak level of Treasury yields in this cycle unchanged at 3.5-3.75%). Its full old vs new projection matrix is shown below:

The VIX has already been adjusted.