Does December trade characteristically 'different' than other months?

[achilles28]

After watching the market for a couple years and hearing veteran traders remark December trades 'characteristically different' than other months, I can attest from my own observations there is some truth to this.

From what i've witnessed this year and last, December price behavior usually exhibits:

big moves which are more 'erratic' than than average 'big move' witnessed in other months

Pull backs are steeper

intraday moves are faster and shorter lasting.

gains are less likely to hold before trend resumes.



Can anyone else speak to this? Does december trade qualitativily different than other months? If so, why?

Or does december trade no different than other months?

Thanks.

[Rhody Trader]

There's less volume in December. The lower liquidity which results can exacerbate price moves. That's why we see sharper moves. I was long EUR/JPY back in December 2000. The cross just kept rising and rising and rising. It was actually kind of scary.

[_Ayman_]

The volume is reduced during the holiday week only. It's normal during the first half of the month.