Holiday Trading Volume Is Always Light, Be Prepared

Almost everyone knows that market volumes always tend to dry up close to the holidays. I highlighted some charts of the SPY (SPY), which give an indication of the volumes during the holiday period over the last 3 years. This year Christmas falls on a Thursday; New Year’s day on the following Thursday, so Wednesdays of both weeks will be a washout with very little trading, light volume etc. After Friday Dec 19th, we’re effectively done for this year. The volume leading up to the Christmas holiday right through to Monday January 5th will be light. Trends should not be trusted.

All trends formed during these two weeks are suspect. I strongly encourage myself and anyone else to not become too involved with trends in any market that develop during these two weeks. You really need to make a conscious effort to step away and wait to see what develops after the New Year.

Holiday 2007 Volume:

Holiday 2006 Volume:

Holiday 2005 Volume:

Almost everyone knows that market volumes always tend to dry up close to the holidays.  I highlighted some charts of the SPY (SPY), which give an indication of the volumes during the holiday period over the last 3 years.  This year Christmas falls on a Thursday; New Year’s day on the following Thursday, so Wednesdays of both weeks will be a washout with very little trading, light volume etc.  After Friday Dec 19th, we’re effectively done for this year.  The volume leading up to the Christmas holiday right through to Monday January 5th will be light.  Trends should not be trusted.

All trends formed during these two weeks are suspect.  I strongly encourage myself and anyone else to not become too involved with trends in any market that develop during these two weeks. You really need to make a conscious effort to step away and wait to see what develops after the New Year.
Holiday 2007 Volume:

Holiday 2006 Volume:

Holiday 2005 Volume:

Posted in Categories: Contributor, External Research, Stocks.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by Email