In their October 2009 paper entitled «Risk Sentiment Index (RSI) and Market Anomalies», Guy Kaplanski and Haim Levy introduce the Risk Sentiment Index (RSI) as a
measure of the residual risk contained in VIX after accounting for the
statistical and economic variables most predictive
of future stock market
volatility (such as previous month actual
volatility and VIX).
Volatility refers to standard deviation, a
statistical measure that captures the variations from the mean
of a stock's returns and that is often used to quantify risk over a specific time period.