In your opinion, what is the biggest reason why volume has all but disappeared in stocks and exchanges....
Volume goes up & down with volatility. Not seeing a diff, other than w/2008 and the first part of 2009, which, you know, makes sense.
I'm new at this but I have this suspicion that the institutions are moving more stock, either in or out, by using calls and puts to make the transfers. Then they are using the futures and some day trading to move the price around. Seems like most market price moves occur overnight (actually early morning during the pre-market) with gaps up or down and then day trading tends to be steady to choppy. Options allows them to pick their price to lock in profit. Then they also can collect on some option premium as well as some pick some profit off of the futures and the pre-markets. By doing this, they can disguise their trading in certain companies without leaving the daily telltale exchange volume that everybody follows. They use exercise and assignment of options as their trading vehicle. Anyway, this is my pet theory so far and I'll wait to see if anyone else thinks it holds water or not or if there is something that can be graphed to show this.
The retail investor has left for a generation. First 2000 then 2008. They've had enough and are not coming back.