by A Simple Way In their efforts to beat the market, many investors are spending a lot of time searching for rare undiscovered gems or sophisticated trading rules. There is actually a simpler way. I will show below how one could have beaten the market by a sizable margin over approximately the past 90 years – with only two trades per month, while being invested only one third of the time and without employing any leverage. Not everything is simple – but some things actually are. - Click to enlarge Gains are Only Generated Around the Turn of the Month Take a look at the following chart. It shows the capital gains delivered by the S&P 500 Index since 1928, depending on the days of the month in which a position in it was held. The blue curve shows the cumulative return generated by the index between the 26th of every month and the 5th of the subsequent month. The red “curve” – which actually looks suspiciously like the x-axis – shows the return generated by the index during the rest of the time, i.e., between the 6th and the 25th of every month. Cumulative return of the S&P 500 Index around the turn of the month (blue line) and the rest of the time (red), indexed (100), 1928 to 2017 Gains are actually only generated around the turn of the month.
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Dimitri Speck considers the following as important: Debt and the Fallacies of Paper Money, Featured, newsletter, The Stock Market
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A Simple WayIn their efforts to beat the market, many investors are spending a lot of time searching for rare undiscovered gems or sophisticated trading rules. There is actually a simpler way. I will show below how one could have beaten the market by a sizable margin over approximately the past 90 years – with only two trades per month, while being invested only one third of the time and without employing any leverage. |
 Not everything is simple – but some things actually are. - Click to enlarge |
Gains are Only Generated Around the Turn of the MonthTake a look at the following chart. It shows the capital gains delivered by the S&P 500 Index since 1928, depending on the days of the month in which a position in it was held. The blue curve shows the cumulative return generated by the index between the 26th of every month and the 5th of the subsequent month. The red “curve” – which actually looks suspiciously like the x-axis – shows the return generated by the index during the rest of the time, i.e., between the 6th and the 25th of every month. Cumulative return of the S&P 500 Index around the turn of the month (blue line) and the rest of the time (red), indexed (100), 1928 to 2017 As can be seen, the time period around the turn of the month outperformed the rest of the time rather handily. The average gain achieved during the profitable time period was 7.60 percent, while an average loss of -1.86 percent was recorded in the rest of the time. |
Turn of the month, Rest of the month compared - Click to enlarge |
Conclusion
The phenomenon is aptly named the “turn-of-the-month effect”. It is tied to payment streams around the end of the month, such as salary payments and pension plan contributions.
The calculation also shows that calendar-related effects can remain stable and profitable for a great many years. Take advantage of them!
Dimitri Speck is the founder of Seaonax and Head Analyst of Seasonal Insights. He is a well-known financial analyst and book author and the former manager of Stay-C, one of the most successful commodity funds ever listed in Germany.
Chart by: Seasonax
Tags: Featured,newsletter,The Stock Market