SlowlyButSurely
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A contributor to this thread recommend I look in and see what I was missing, currently being a forex trader - and not making any money doing it. Just pulled up the FTSE 15min chart (and the DAX for that matter) and they look just as slack as (and even more spiky than) most forex pairs. Do the indices suffere from the same apparent summer doldrums as other asset classes?
I just don't get how summer (in the Northern hemisphere) can be the driver for virtually all financial trade to decrease to such painful levels. I appreciate 2014 has been a disappointing year simply because it failed to confirm the strong moves in 2013 that were touted as presaging the move out of global recession, but really, does all major commercial and professional and institutional interest simply die away in the summer - nothing gets transacted? I find it quite difficult to believe finance is seasonal to such a significant extent.
I could better believe that it was the new status quo in that global commerce has dropped off a cliff and this is how it is now - not just for the summer and as traders, we might as well come back on 5 years or 10 years after the global economy has picked up again.
Well in late July through August most firms will see a lot of staff leave the office for holidays. Most people take 2 weeks off and obviously staff numbers will be low. There is also the point that many large firms will turn off some algorithms and black boxes that market make which is why you see such a reduction in volume.
If you know the markets will be quiet, and your main competitors and half your staff will all be away, then why stay behind to play with the retail traders? Of course anything to do with physical business will continue (oil shipments, mergers etc) but even that quietens down.