Trade volume-very important bottom line Excuss if a bit spamish but don;t have much to add and thought this article would remind us how clever you are being in early.
In April, the average daily trades in American stocks on all exchanges stood at nearly half of its peak in 2008: 6.5 billion compared with 12.1 billion, according to Credit Suisse Trading Strategy.
You may not see it in the price of Canadian stocks, which have been climbing, but traders are fleeing the Canadian stock market in droves.
New numbers Friday from Canada's biggest stock market show that by every measure, activity is down from 2011 even as broad market indexes climb in value.
Volume traded numbers on the Toronto Stock Exchange fell in February from January, and declined precipitously from 2011 totals.
While the S&P 500 was virtually unchanged last year, 55 stocks lost more than 30 percent compared with a total of 13 in the prior two. The Dow Jones Industrial Average alternated between gains and losses of more than 400 points on four days for the first time ever in August. Daily share swings in the S&P 500 averaged 2.2 percent that month, the most for any August since 1932, Bloomberg data show.
Equity mutual funds focused on large companies had their worst year since 1997, with only 17 percent beating the S&P 500 in 2011, data from Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. show.
Hedge funds, largely unregulated investment pools that aim to make money whether markets rise or fall, lost 4.9 percent last year, according to the Bloomberg aggregate hedge-fund index. Managers have cut leverage, or money borrowed for trading, to 2.54 times this month, suggesting reduced activities, according to a Jan. 17 note by Credit Suisse Group AG. Leverage peaked in 2011 at above 2.7 in April, the firm estimates.
Morgan Stanley, owner of the world’s largest brokerage, said last month it plans to cut about 1,600 jobs. New York-based WJB Capital Group Inc., with 100 employees, is shutting its brokerage operation.