As Volatility Continues to Subside, Nasdaq Reports Drop in May Volumes

As Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad Read this Term continues to lessen in the trading markets, Nasdaq has reported its volumes for the month of May, with the exchange operator revealing that it has yet again seen a drop in volumes.

During the month, Nasdaq recorded a monthly trading volume of 181 million US equity options contracts. Against the previous month, which had a trading volume of 201 million contracts, May’s volume has dropped by around 10.0 per cent.

Although trading might have fallen in May on a monthly comparison, it is worth noting that volumes are still higher on a yearly comparison. In fact, volumes in May were still higher by 17.5 per cent for US equity options. This indicated that although volumes continue to fall from March highs, trading activity still remains higher than normal.

US matched equity volume also dropped in May, falling from 46.1 billion shares in April, down to 40.2 billion in May, representing a decline of 12.7 per cent. May’s volume is also significantly less than the 65.6 billion shares traded in March, but it is higher than the trading volumes recorded in January and February of this year.

European equity volume, however, has managed to increase both on a monthly and yearly comparison in May of 2020. Specifically, it has increased slightly by 0.6 per cent from April’s volume to reach $80.1 billion last month. It is also stronger by approximately 25.0 per cent year-on-year.

Fixed income volumes fall YoY on Nasdaq

Taking a look at fixed-income volumes, for the United States, a total of $402 billion was trading May. When measuring this against the previous month, which had a trading volume of $397 billion, trading has increased by 1.3 per cent.

Whilst trading volumes for US fixed income is slightly higher on a monthly comparison, it has fallen considerably from the same period of the previous year, with May of 2019 reporting a trading volume of $1.08 trillion. Therefore, volumes are down by 62.6 per cent year-on-year.