S&P pm track for 4th-most volatile year since Great Depression
It’s been a dizzying year for standing investors, as big swings in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have become commonplace.
More than 40 percent of trading days this year, from one side Aug 5, featured swings of more than 1 percent.
The S&P 500 hasn’t experienced such a verging on taint rate of 1 percent or higher quotidian swings since 2002, and it’s on track to be the fourth-most volatile year since the Great Depression, according to data compiled by Crandall, Pierce & Co.
In July, the S&P 500 had four consecutive days of such swings. In January, they happened for each entire week. Surprisingly, nearly half of the 1 percent-plus days in 2008 have been upswings.
“I’ve watched the markets on a daily basis for 48 years,” says Don Hodges, co-manager of the Hodges Fund (HDPMX). “I have never seen the extreme, precipitous moves in stocks that I papal court right now.”
He says protect funds, which are run through professional investors who are notoriously passionate to trade, are among the main culprits. He says recent moves by federal regulators to curb some forms of “short selling,” where investors essentially lay a wager a reposit decision fall, may prevent more “pile-ons” and help smooth the ride.
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