A Strange Law of Traffic Congestion, from Victor Niederhoffer
There is a strange law of traffic congestion which says that after an accident has been cleared, there is still congestion at the site. I believe this goes beyond people slowing down to see what happened in the accident. Perhaps I am wrong. One notes that prices are extroardinarily jumpy today just as if there was an employment number that was announced at 8:30 when prices jump by 1 standard deviation on average in the second. Gold at 8 am was 1306, then at 8:10 it was 1322. The S&P was 1671 at 8:10 and now 1664 at 9:00. Similarly for other markets.
If this is a true phenomenon, what is the explanation. Or as Cootner or Harry Brown would say, these are just properly anticipated random moves that palooka onlookers confuse as regularities.