I have had coworkers that watch all sorts of matches on small screens next to their monitors, so the fact that trading volume drops during the World Cup should have been of little surprise. Still, the degree to which it does shocked me:
“An analysis of trading data from 15 global stock exchanges carried out during the 2010 World Cup—which was held in South Africa—found that trading volume dropped by roughly 33% from normal levels during games. The research, by two economists from the European Central Bank and the Dutch central bank, found median trading volume was 55% lower than normal when the national team from an individual exchange’s country was playing.“
An argument against efficient markets, perhaps.