Chanticleer was recently speaking with one of their wise old heads of Australian capital markets about his plans for the summer break. After a tasty rally to end the year – the ASX 200 is now up 9.5 per cent since the end of October – was he looking forward to putting his feet up and switching off his phone?

Not quite. He hates the dog days of December because of the volatility they bring. With trading volumes naturally lower due to the summer break, stocks can jump around in ways that investors don’t expect leading up to the December 31 end to the first half of the financial year.