One thing that strikes me as pretty strange is the WTI contract's lack of movement for a while after the close of the open outcry session. During the session the contract actively participates in the global markets, and the strength of the dollar, commodities and the equitites markets all obviously play along with oil. But, for some reason, the relationships break down when the session has ended. Normally there's a tight trading range of 8-10 cents, and no matter what moves you see in ES or EUR for instance, the WTI contract hardly moves at all. Now, I can appreciate that there's brokers etc who want to settle positions, tally up their p&l, get reports right etc, but in an electronic market in this day and age this seems quite antiquated when earlier relationships all of a sudden are suspended. It's like a giant Arabica break.
1) Professional / commercial / institutional / physical traders prefer a "shorter" workday. If you want to trade 23 hours per day, that's up to you. 2) Some of the "slowdown" can be holiday-related too already.