Trading volume is way down as investors lick their wounds from a brutal tech and healthcare sell-off this Spring. For those of us who don’t participate in heavy trading, it has been a beautiful Spring. It’s fun being able to stay above the fray and collect dividends. And it’s no surprise that hedge funds were in the middle of this latest mess. The WSJ has more on the lower trading volume here :
Still, some fast-trading hedge funds have pulled back after suffering big losses in this spring’s collapse of richly valued, young technology stocks. Frenetic trading in those shares boosted volumes in the first four months of 2014, but the swings have since subsided.
Even high-frequency traders are slowing down: Their stock-trading volume declined 3% last year and is down 52% from the 2009 peak, according to an estimate by Rosenblatt Securities Inc.
Some traders also said there has been a chill in hedge-fund trading in the wake of the insider-trading investigations that led to SAC Capital Advisors LP’s decision to convert to a home office, which manages the funds of insiders led by founder Steven A. Cohen. SAC and other fast-trading firms often bought and sold stock in huge volume, especially around earnings reports. A spokesman for the firm, now called Point72 Asset Management, declined to comment.
