Bespoke Investment Group has found another way to point out just how tame the stock market action has been in 2012. We noted here before that the daily moves within the S&P 500 have been exceptionally tame next to some of the fireworks in recent years. But the moves among the most volatile stocks within the broader S&P 1500 also suggests that things are pretty quiet right now.
Bespoke went looking for the most volatile stocks within the index, targeting stocks that are priced over $10 (U.S.) and have the largest average intraday moves over the past 50 days. Just one stock has an average intraday move of more than 7 per cent: Diamond Foods Inc., whose shares have been bouncing around in recent months after collapsing last year over allegations of accounting irregularities.
More to the point, fewer than half of the stocks on the list have high-low intraday spreads of 5 per cent or more. "It wasn't too long ago that every stock on the list had an average daily spread of more than 5 per cent," Bespoke noted.
David Berman