I have thought about the samething.. My thoughts are why the markets has held up so well is, tutes have held large chunks of their big gainers, pulled only what they needed to (the low vol we have been seeing), and next year they will dump their big gains to start their books off with gains. That way they can take their time to find new winners.. Another thing you have to keep inmind, A LOT of trading desks closed for the year back in July because of Bho's bonus rules, they made the max they could for the year so why trade anymore.. Another issue with volume you also have to keep in mind all the banks prop desk have been closed also due to bho's new rules,, now a lot of them have and are moving them off shore, so we should see much more volume going into next year..
