Wall Street Adjusts to the New Trading Normal Transaction Volume in May Fell to Its Lowest Level Since Financial Crisis The Wall Street Journal By DAN STRUMPF June 6, 2014 The stock market is hitting records again, but it doesn't feel that way on many Wall Street trading desks. Trading volume on the major U.S. exchanges last month tumbled to its lowest level for May since the financial crisis. A daily average of 5.7 billion shares changed hands, the least for the month since 2007, according to Credit Suisse Trading Strategy. At the Milwaukee stock-trading desk of investment bank Robert W. Baird & Co., Michael Antonelli uses the down time to send market-related tweets or works on posts for his firm's stock-market blog, Bull and Baird. A tweet from Tuesday: "Another completely dead day." 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. "It just seemed like someone turned the switch off," said Peter Schwartz, a stock trader at Macquarie Group Ltd.'s New York trading desk. Many traders said some forces curbing activity could be here to stay and fear the action could slow further in the traditionally sleepy summer months. "If it's this slow now, I'm dreading July and August," said Mr. Antonelli of Baird. http://online.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-adjusts-to-the-new-trading-normal-1401910990 How about you? How have you adjusted to this fundamental shift in the markets?
Well.......it's a vicious cycle. You need volume for traders to get back into the game, less volume, more players leave the game.