March 25, 2020

Many Tiny Trades

All 20 biggest points-losses for Dow Jones Industrials (DJIA) stocks in history have occurred under Regulation National Market System.

And 18 occurred from 2018-2020. Fifteen of the 20 biggest points-gains are in the last two years too, with all save one, in Mar 2000, under Reg NMS (2007-present).

It’s more remarkable against the backdrop of the Great Depression of the 1930s when the DJIA traded below 100, even below 50, versus around 20,700 now and small moves would be giant percentage jumps. Indeed, fifteen of the twenty biggest percentage gains occurred between 1929-1939. But four are under Reg NMS including yesterday’s 11.4% jump, 4th biggest all-time.

Just six of the biggest points-losses are under Reg NMS (we wrote this about the rule). But ranked second is Mar 16, 2020. And 19 of the 20 most volatile days on record – biggest intraday moves – were in the last two years, and all are under Reg NMS.

Statistically, these concentrated volatility records are anomalous and say what’s extant now in markets promotes volatility.  Our market is stuffed full of many tiny trades.

Volume the past five days has averaged 9.9 million shares per mean S&P 500 component, up 135% from the 200-day average.  But intraday volatility is up nearly 400%, trade-size measured in dollars is down 30%.

That’s why we’re setting volatility records. The definition of volatility is unstable prices.

I’m delighted as I’m sure CVX is that the big energy company led DJIA gainers yesterday, rising 22%.  But stocks shouldn’t post an excellent annual return in a day.

CVX liquidity metrics (volume is not liquidity!) show the same deterioration we see in the S&P 500, with intraday volatility up 400%, trade-size down 47%, daily trades up over 240% to 196,000 daily versus long-run average of about 57,000.

Doing way more of the same thing in tiny pieces means intermediaries get paid at the expense of investors.

Every stock by law must trade between the best national visible (at exchanges) bid to buy and offer to sell.  When volatility rises, big investors lose ability to buy and sell efficiently, because prices are constantly changing.

Regulators and exchanges have tried to deal with extraordinary volatility by halting trading.  We’ve tracked more than 7,500 individual trading halts in stocks since Mar 9 – twelve trading days.  Marketwide circuit breakers have repeatedly tripped.

Volatility has only worsened.

In financial crises, we inject liquidity to stabilize prices.  We can do the same in stocks by suspending the so-called “Trade Through Rule” requiring that stocks trade at a single best price, if the market is more than 5% volatile.

Trade size would jump, permitting big investors to move big money, returning confidence and stability to prices. We’ve proposed it three times to the SEC now.

Investors and public companies need to understand if the market is working. Let’s define “working.” The simplest measure is liquidity, which is not volume but dollars per trade, the amount one can buy or sell before price changes.  By that measure, the market has failed utterly during this tumult.

Let’s insist on a market capable of burstable bandwidth, so to speak, to handle surges.  Suspending Rule 611 of Reg NMS during stress is a logical strategy for the next time.

Let’s finish today by channeling the biblical apostles, who came to Jesus asking what would be the sign of the end of the age?  Here, we want to know what the sign is that market tumult is over.

At the extremities, no model can predict outcomes.  But given the nature of the market today and the behaviors dominating it, the rules governing it, we can inform ourselves.

This market crisis commenced Feb 24, the Monday when new marketwide derivatives traded for March expiration.  In the preceding week, demand for derivatives declined 5% at the same time Market Structure Sentiment topped.

We had no idea how violent the correction would be. But these signals are telling and contextual. They mean derivatives play an enormous role.

We had massive trouble with stocks right through the entire March cycle, which concluded Mar 20 with quad-witching.  Monday, new derivatives for April expiration began trading.

It’s a new clock, a reset to the timer.

You longtime clients know we watch Counterparty Tuesday, the day in the cycle when banks square the ledger around new and expired derivatives. That was yesterday.

That the market surged means supply undershot demand. And last week Risk Mgmt rose by 5% and was the top behavior – trades tied to derivatives, insurance, leverage. Shorting fell to the lowest sustained level in years. Market Structure Sentiment bottomed.

It’s a near-term nadir. The risk is that volatility keeps the market obsessed with changing the prices, which is arbitrage. Exchange Traded Funds depend on arbitrage (and led the surge in CVX).  Fast Traders do too. Bets on derivatives do.

The tumult ends in my view when big arbitragers quit, letting investment behavior briefly prevail.  We’ll see it. We haven’t yet.  The market may rise fast and fall suddenly again.

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