At first glance the wild gyrations in global markets over the past 10 days appear to have been driven by increased fears of US recession and of the Federal Reserve having been caught napping. Weak labour market data together with gloomy survey evidence on the state of the country’s manufacturing induced weakness in crowded and exuberantly valued areas of the US equity market such as tech. In short, an army of momentum traders was drastically wrongfooted by extreme volatility in thin August markets.
乍一看,過去10天全球市場的劇烈波動似乎是由于對美國經濟衰退和美聯儲措手不及的擔憂加劇所致。疲軟的勞動力市場數據,加上對該國制造業狀況的悲觀調查結果,導致了美國股市中一些擁擠且高估的領域(如科技股)的疲軟。簡而言之,一大批動量交易員在8月份薄弱的市場中被極端的波動搞得措手不及。