Traders who paid through the nose to bet on volatility have been taking it in the shorts lately. How else to explain the stock market’s soporific price action other than as a costly rebuke to the multitudes who evidently are long straddles? Stocks have been acting as we might expect them to in the doldrums between Christmas and New Year’s. The wasting of options premium has been mildly alleviated by whatever hysteria DaBoyz are able to stir up on Fridays, but otherwise we shouldn’t expect much excitement as 2014 draws to a close.