Ahead of the weekend, the German leading index appears rather fickle. The big expiry date on the futures exchanges could cause further turbulence.
At the opening of trading, the DAX was marginally 0.01 percent lower at 24,196.19 points. It then oscillates in a narrow range around the previous day’s closing price.
Previous DAX records
On October 9th, the DAX reached a new record high of 24,771.34 points. Ultimately, it ended the day at 24,611.25 points, which also meant a new record based on the closing price.
Expert: “Last big trading day of the year”
According to market observer Thomas Altmann from QC Partners, today will be “the last big trading day of the year” as the coming week is significantly shortened because of Christmas and many investors are likely to say goodbye to the holidays. The news situation is already thinning out more and more before the Christmas holidays and the turn of the year.
Today is a big expiry day on the futures exchanges
Things could get exciting again during trading on Friday, because it’s another big expiry day: On this day, futures contracts on stocks and indices expire on the futures exchanges. Stock marketers speak of the “great expiration” or “quadruple expiration” when options and futures on indices and individual stocks expire on the same day.
There are a total of four major expiry dates each year, on the third Friday of June, September, December and March. On these dates, share prices and indices can fluctuate noticeably without any significant news. Stronger price fluctuations on such days occur, especially for heavyweight stocks in the corresponding indices.
At lunchtime at 12:00 p.m., during the so-called fixing, the index options and futures of EuroStoxx 50 and Stoxx 50 on Eurex expire. At 1:00 p.m. the futures and options on the DAX and TecDAX expire in the midday auction and five minutes later those on the MDAX expire. The options and futures on the individual stocks expire towards the close of trading.
“It is the biggest and most important options expiration of the year,” wrote market observer Thomas Altmann of QC Partners. He sees the pivotal point at the 24,000 point mark, which has recently been undershot at times. Inflation data from the USA had given the DAX the necessary boost the day before to build up some buffer to this psychological mark.
Editorial team finanzen.net / dpa-AFX / Dow Jones Newswires