Thursday, August 21, 2014

The Number of Stocks with Big Daily Price Swings is Lowest Ever

Earlier today we highlighted the absolute collapse in the number of stocks experiencing price gaps at the open of trading. In a similar vein we highlight here the absolute collapse in the number of stocks experiencing big price swings on a given day. For the purposes of this analysis, we define a large price swing as a single day move of 5% or more in either direction (blue line, left axis, inverted).

In the chart below we compare the 65-day running total of the number of stocks in the MSCI World Index experiencing a large price swing in either direction (blue line, left axis, inverted) to the price of the Index (red line, right axis). We note the highly negative correlation as well as the fact that large daily price swings in stocks are at the all-time low going back as far as we have data.

image