FDAX / ES correlation and decorrelation

A correlation that depends on the hour

The DAX and the S&P 500 are correlated, but not in the same way all the time, and that variation is what makes the DAX trader's job. Between 9 am and 2:30 pm, the intraday correlation of the two futures is moderate: the ES is in its night, its moves are small, and the DAX follows its own catalysts. Between 3:30 pm and 10 pm, the correlation becomes very high: tick for tick some days, with the DAX as the follower.

That is not a statistic to memorise, it is a structure to use: in the morning, the DAX has its own opinion; in the afternoon, it borrows the ES's.