Are the Olympics sucking the volume out of markets?

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by Chris Becker.

I don’t watch the Olympics, not because I don’t watch commercial TV, but because they raise jingoism and corporatism high above individual achievement, amid rampant corruption and graft – and don’t get me started on those absurd medal tallies!

But my minority view aside, it looks like another impact is the lack of trading volume in world markets, as traders seem to rather watch Michael Phelps instead of the Yen. Or as was the case this morning, the Australian v US basketball game (image courtesy of David Scutt)

aususd game

This can be better illustrated viewing the trading volume in the SPY contract, which tracks the S&P500:

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volume

Although volume has been declining for sometime now, with concerns that the majority of trading is just algo’s/HFT – comprising 50-60% of the volume:

$spx_us_price_daily_and_volume___weekly.12feb15_to_29aug16
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The Volatility Index or VIX is dropping, now at a near three year low – always a sign of a spike of volatility to come!

$vix_us_price_daily.13aug15_to_23aug16

Meanwhile, there’s another two weeks of Olympics to go….

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