VDAX® was introduced on 5 December 1994. Since 14 July 1997, Deutsche Börse AG has calculated VDAX every minute using the Black-Scholes formula. The index is based on DAX option prices, and thus on the implicit volatility of DAX, i.e. how significant the market expects future price fluctuations to be.

The time series for daily VDAX values dates back to 2 January 1992.