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By Xavier Mohr, SLReports.net Some people call it 'holiday shock'. Others, in the absence of their own witty terms, merely bite their lips and deal with what can be one of the slowest times of year for business. It is this period – roughly from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day every year – that I call the "Holiday Lull." While I speak from mostly an American standpoint in talking about this, I would assume that the same comments can be applied to any economy existing in a primarily Christian region celebrating Christmas and New Year holidays in a similar manner.
In fact, the reasons for this seemingly 'dead' period in most sales-oriented fields are quite simple. People take off for the Christmas holiday en masse on Christmas Eve or prior. Many travel to distant locations to be with family, or simply to celebrate the holidays in peace. Many continue their travels through or beyond the first day of January. In addition, this is a very slow period for spending in general. While some people are out there redeeming gift cards or swooping in to buy post-holiday sale items, in general there is little new money being pushed into the economy. The social expectation of excessive Christmas spending, combined with its end-of-month celebration, leave little extra income to be spent by the Average Joe. In short, people aren't home... or just don't have extra money. It was with a lot of excitement, but a little confusion that I eagerly watched CapEx in the days directly after the Christmas holiday. On December 26th, the SL Capital Exchange moved 1,644,396 shares in transactions totaling L$961,515.97. The 27th of December was far shorter in number, but impressive overall viewed through the scope of the market's track record for the past few months. On this day, approximately 430,730 shares traded hands amounting to approximately L$283,475.99. Yesterday also saw impressive numbers, with 1,026,997 shares trading in L$691,156.09 of transactions. Post-holiday share prices bear no room for complaint, either. On the 26th, 27th, and 28th days of December, average share prices at the SL Capital Exchange were L$1.487, L$1.775, and L$1.468, respectively. As of the time this article is being written, the trend is slightly less supported, with 114,974 shares having traded amounting to L$142,192.60 in transactions.. citing a rough, average share price of L$1.237. It would appear that – at least in CapEx's case – that the myth of the "Holiday Lull" has been blasted out the window. In the very worst case that today's numbers continue as a trend through the first week of 2008, it would appear that the holidays have been 'business as usual' for the exchange. The fact that there was not more of a significant drop for CapEx post-holiday perplexes me a bit, but opens the door for a wide number of explanations. Does the international customer base of JT Financial immunize it from such secular social trends as post-holiday drops in spending? Is this 'business as usual' visage a sign of the true global reach of all things associated with Second Life? Alternatively... are all of our Second Life traders just too 'hooked' to take off for the holidays? Too rich to feel the impact? Perhaps the up-trend was just an influx of gifted Christmas cash, or sparked by coincidental circumstances in multiple companies. It will be interesting to see if we have a sharp fall-off in trading around New Year's... if we don't, I would hope that it's a sign that not all regional economic trends apply to our virtual world. All in all, not a bad post-holiday performance for the SL Capital Exchange, by any standards. Until Next Time...
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