Jean-Francois Tardif, from Sprott Asset Management, posted an interesting article on timing the markets using the VIX.  This is what he said:

As the Opportunities strategy applies a primarily bottom-up approach to investing, we consider ourselves stock-pickers above all else. Accordingly, despite the unstable market environment, our bottom-up analysis identified several new investment opportunities for the long portion of the portfolio during the month. Many companies that already exhibited above average growth, earnings, and free cash flow, also began trading at attractive valuations after the correction in January. We took advantage of this fact during February, buying more of our favorite names and adding some new positions to the portfolio as well.

Nevertheless, despite our bottom-up focus, we cannot ignore the mounting evidence that we are entering a secular bear market. This volatile environment has influenced not only the amount of short-selling opportunities we identify on an ongoing basis, but also the strategy we employ in trading the short side of the portfolio. Essentially, we endeavor to cover a selection of our shorts around market bottoms and then short stocks on the subsequent bounce. One of the tools we use to successfully execute the timing of this strategy is the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index), a widely used measure of perceived market risk that we have addressed in previous market comments. As we transition into March, we are wary of the fact that the chart below indicates to us that another correction may be approaching.