Hey I think I know the answer to this, but I'm just looking for a little confirmation. Every day, the Globex dies at 1:30 (central) . I'm guessing this is due to live trading ending. It's strange to me that there is so little electronic trading that a market that technically doesn't close until 4:15 just peter's out two hours and 45 mins early. Thanks in advance for the response. One more thing. I'm trying to get a consensus on whether we're going up or down next week. Memorial Day, Nigeria, Summer Looming, I'm thinking up, not sure how high yet.
Yes, you have the right idea....volume tends to dry up after the pits close. Sometimes there is activity beyond 2:30 if something is happening, but usually it just chops around until 5:15 when it closes. The reason they extended pit hours and extra hour (was from 10:00 to 2:30 and now is 9:00 to 2:30) was due to the fact that the vast majority of the volume is done during pit hours, even though about 80% of it is on Globex...
Floor locals still trade a large chunk of daily volume, they just do most of it on globex themselves. At 1.30 when the closing bell rings, most still go to the bar, hence the falloff in volume.
I have also noticed that CL becomes range bound for a few minutes around 9:30 ET when the stock markets open. I have seen very few decisive moves in that time bracket. GC