from Confounded Interest
The frenzy of trading in U.S. equities is showing no signs of abating and looks set to surpass levels seen during the worst of the pandemic panic in March. Over the last 20 days, an average 15.8 billion shares have traded each day on all U.S. exchanges, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s just below the 16.1 billion average hit on March 25, which was the highest in at least over a decade. Bursts of trading usually come amid periods of surging volatility so with price swings subdued the jump in trading activity looks like another sign of stock market exuberance.
Since Covid and The Federal Reserve altered markets back in February/March 2020, we have seen stock market volatility rise then decline (purple line) while trading volumes have risen in January 2021. Boatloads of monetary stimulus …