Maureen

Equity Volumes, Volatility and ‘Skew’ in the Markets

Moran Forman, Liz, Maureen

Driven by record-breaking retail activity that now accounts for 25% of market volume, institutional investors have rotated into ETF shorts to hedge against a supply-demand imbalance, pushing the firm's short book allocation to a historic 20%. This divergence has created unique market dynamics where narrow single-stock volatility contrasts with elevated index skew, while expectations for a massive fiscal stimulus package and potential wage-driven inflation remain critical variables for the Federal Reserve's pro-cyclical policy framework.