It's been a quiet August on Wall Street. Really quiet.
One day after the second-lowest daily volume of the year, U.S. equities have been trading in a very tight range amid extremely low volatility.
At Monday's close, 5.34 billion shares were traded, the lowest level of trading volume since March 28, when just 5.22 billion shares were traded. That compares with a daily volume of 6.9 billion shares on a 50-day moving average.
Volatility has been virtually non-existent. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, has traded near two-year lows. The VIX is calculated based on the put options and call options on the S&P 500 trading at the CBOE.
That being said the markets have continued to grind higher despite the anemic volume. The , Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones industrial average hit all-time highs just last week, though the S&P 500 continued its 31 session streak without a 1 percent move on a closing basis.
— Additional reporting by CNBC's Christopher Hayes and Fred Imbert