  A novel application of the correlation matrix formalism to study dynamics of
the financial evolution is presented. This formalism allows to quantify the
memory effects as well as some potential repeatable intradaily structures in
the financial time-series. The present study is based on the high-frequency
Deutsche Aktienindex (DAX) data over the time-period between November 1997 and
December 1999 and demonstrates a power of the method. In this way two
significant new aspects of the DAX evolution are identified: (i) the memory
effects turn out to be sizably shorter than what the standard autocorrelation
function analysis seems to indicate and (ii) there exist short term repeatable
structures in fluctuations that are governed by a distinct dynamics. The former
of these results may provide an argument in favour of the market efficiency
while the later one may indicate origin of the difficulty in reaching a
Gaussian limit, expected from the central limit theorem, in the distribution of
returns on longer time-horizons.
