Hopefully by now, the decorations are up. We went for a smaller tree this year because it makes the baubles look bigger and somehow shinier. More practically, it makes space for those extra large gifts underneath. The great thing about a fir is its neutral colours can accommodate any shade of tinsel and dangling ornaments. We have a little plastic Santa Claus railway perched on the branches. It’s a bit tacky, but the dog loves to watch.
If you’ve found yourself behind and need some motivation, the 12 Days of Trading team bring you our annual look at our ‘Record Days’ chart showing you all days since 2020 where the market traded €100B or more.
The biggest baubles are coloured green. There have been 122 days out of 1551 in nearly six years - so it’s 7.8% or one every few weeks. It doesn’t feel like that because they tend to cluster (remember February and March of the Covid crisis). The biggest day was 17 March 2020 when traders booked €190B, closely followed by 7 April this year with €188B as the global economy took stock of tariff changes (4 April features in the top 10 too).
This year takes the runner up position in the “Big Days” race with 38 (or 31% of all Big Days) beaten only by 2020 with 40. Both reflect the market impact on volatility of events such as the Covid crisis and the sheer scale of tariff changes this year. March and February are the biggest months for big days, (48 and 22 respectively) and only because of the coincidence of three major macro events; there were 10 Big Days at the start of the war in Ukraine - and the knock on impact that significant macro events has on index changes, especially the May quarterly event (there are nine in May all but one aligned with effective dates).
Predicting and managing volume distribution through the day, not just over time but across different venue types, is not for the faint hearted. Index reconstitutions have a very particular closing auction profile, for example.
Monitoring and incorporating this data is essential for managing trading costs through accurate trade scheduling, especially on unusual or 'special' days such as expiries, reconstitutions, or unexpected global events.
Our tools help you operationalise this capability through daily volume curves, available as standalone datasets or via our APIs.
