- Oct
- 23
- 2008
- 3:41 PM
Late Market Moves: Not Just Your Imagination
- By: Ray Pellecchia
- File Under: NYSE
From the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat blog: Unhappy Hour
Excerpt:
Daily trading activity has featured two distinctive sections: the six-and-a-half-hour slog that opens the day, and the “lightning round” frenzy that is the last hour. The final 60 minutes of trade in the stock market keeps stealing the show. ...
In total, the Dow fell 28% from April 1 through the close on Oct. 17. But the Dow fell 13% when only taking into account the last hour of trade - nearly half its total decline. (It fell 5.3% if just the first hour is considered, which makes the 10:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. stretch equivalent to naptime.)
Not to nitpick, but on that first sentence: the whole 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. trading day is 6 1/2 hours. Last thing you want is someone as math-challenged as me correcting your arithmetic!
My question is, how does the late-day volatility of the last seven months compare with the comparable period a year ago, or years past? There 's no comparator cited here to help us judge. Maybe it's in the research but didn't make it into the blog post?
Comments
How does one get stats on NYSE volume pre-1960? I know I've seen it, just can't seem to locate it.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
by Chris Kehoe on October 28, 2008 9:09 AM
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