Tiger Woods single-handedly cripples NYSE

Well, cripples probably isn’t the right word. But for all the lavish (and deserved) praise my coworker Dean Barnett heaps upon Tiger, it’s probably worth mentioning that Tiger’s 18 hole playoff with Rocco Mediate on Monday contributed to a 9.2% decline in trading volume at the New York Stock Exchange.* Says Darren Rovell:

With action starting at noon and finishing past the close, it theoretically slowed down four hours of the trading day. Well, this morning, I got the hard numbers from our number cruncher Ariel Nelson.

Check this out:

Average New York Stock Exchange Volume, between 12-4 pm. (last 30 days): 781.5 million shares traded.

New York Stock Exchange Volume between 12-4 pm (yesterday): 709.9 million shares traded.

Tiger Woods: great golfer, economic menace. Who knew?

*Yes, yes, I know, correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causality. Sue me, I’m making a joke.