There was one time when I was writing for RealMoney when none of the three main indexes (S&P 500, DJIA, Nasdaq Composite) moved much on a given day, and so posted on it to show how rare it was. ?One fellow e-mailed me be saying, “You have too much ?time on your hands.”
Maybe so, but on 6/10/2014, it was even more quiet. ?It was the 11th most quiescent day for the indexes since the Nasdaq Composite was created in February 1971. ?Here’s a list of quiet days:
| Date | Least Volatile | Nasdaq | S&P500 | DJIA |
| 11/12/2012 | 1 | -0.021% | 0.013% | -0.002% |
| 12/27/1977 | 2 | 0.019% | 0.000% | -0.020% |
| 8/20/2012 | 3 | -0.012% | -0.002% | -0.027% |
| 6/14/1989 | 4 | -0.022% | -0.025% | -0.004% |
| 12/2/2011 | 5 | 0.028% | -0.024% | -0.005% |
| 8/26/2009 | 6 | 0.010% | 0.012% | 0.044% |
| 10/11/2010 | 7 | 0.017% | 0.015% | 0.035% |
| 3/16/1993 | 8 | 0.037% | -0.013% | 0.016% |
| 5/31/1979 | 9 | 0.023% | -0.030% | 0.021% |
| 11/2/1984 | 10 | 0.000% | -0.042% | -0.035% |
| 6/10/2014 | 11 | 0.041% | -0.025% | 0.017% |
There’s no rhyme or reason to this list. ?Quiet days are unique, and as far as this list goes, are a once in four?years occurrence. ?Still, it’s fun to think about quiet days, and wonder why we have trading at all. ?We may as well have had a vacation day.
“Quiet days are unique, and as far as this list goes, are a once in four years occurrence.”
Hmmm … over half the list is since 2009 though. To which I conclude .. nothing of consequence. Back to my nap.
Maybe I should have said that I can’t see much of a pattern here… then again, you noticed one. 😉