A Motley Fool member asked a great question during a Q&A session at a gathering in San Diego last week:

“With the bigger presence of media talking about the markets and the hyperactivity of trading by computers, do you see this higher volatility as a more permanent reality for the markets?”

I like this question because the amount of media attention and computer trading is unquestionably higher today than the past. It worries a lot of people. 

But the premise of the question — whether there is more volatility today compared to the past — is a separate issue. And the answer might surprise you.

In response to the question I said that I suspected, without looking at the data, that …

• Hour-to-hour, day-to-day, market volatility is indeed higher now than it was in the past.
• Month-to-month, year-to-year, I didn’t think volatility is higher now than it’s been for most of history.

But that was a guess. So I crunched the numbers this week and … CLICK HERE to read the complete article