The race that stops the equity market

The Melbourne Cup is a major horse racing event that is colloquially known as the ‘race that stops the nation’ in Australia. We use constituent stock intraday volume data on the Australian Securities Exchange S&P/ASX 200 equity index from 2003 to 2013 within a regression framework to examine whether this major horse race reduces investor attention. Results show that trading volume on the Australian equity market is significantly reduced during and immediately surrounding the running of the Melbourne Cup, supporting the claim that this is the ‘race that stops the equity market’.