GOLDMAN SACHS: 33 stocks to buy right now for strong returns of at least 15% and minimal risk as the economic reopening helps equities grind higher into year-end Summary List Placement Volatile meme stocks and cryptocurrencies have captured headlines over the past year, but the stock market as a whole has remained relatively subdued. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a popular measure of market volatility, has mostly traded under 20 since May. For comparison, the index hit a high of 37.21 in January and has seen a historical average of 22. Threats of inflation, geopolitical tensions, big-tech crackdowns, and more haven''t managed to move the needle in terms of volatility this year. At the same time, the SP 500 has outperformed, returning some 16% year-to-date as the economic reopening helps equities continue their rise. In a recent note to clients, Goldman Sachs'' chief US equity strategist David J. Kostin wrote that this mix of strong returns and low volatility has pushed the SP 500''s Sharpe ratio to 2.72. The Sharpe ratio was created in 1966 by Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe as a measure of the excess return investors receive in exchange for the volatility of holding riskier assets.