Aug 23, 2016 | educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, seasonal, trading strategy
Some days are just better than others – am I right or am I right? As a corollary, some days are worse than others. Wouldn’t it be nice to know in advance which days were going to be which?
Well, when it comes to the stock market, maybe you can.
The 3 Days to Miss
For our purposes we will refer to the very last trading day of the month as TDM -1. The day before that will be TDM -2, the one before that TDM -3, etc. Now let’s focus specifically on TDMs -7, -6 and -5.
Let’s now assume that we will buy and hold the Dow Jones Industrials Average every day of every month EXCEPT for those three days – i.e., we will sell at the close of TDM -8 every single month and buy back in 3 days later. We will refer to this as Jay’s -765 Method. Granted some may not be comfortable trading this often, but before dismissing the idea please consider the results.
Figure 1 displays the growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow as described above versus the growth of $1,000 from buying and holding the Dow.
*The starting date for this test is 12/1/1933.
*For this test no interest is assumed on the 3 days a month spent out of the market.
Figure 1 – Growth of $1,000 invested in Dow Industrials during all days EXCEPT TDM -7,TDM -6 and TDM -5 (blue line) versus $1,000 invested in Dow Industrials using buy-and-hold (red line); 12/1/1933-8/15/2016
For the record:
*Jay’s -765 Method gained +94,190%
*The Dow buy-and-hold gained +18,745%
While these results are compelling, the real “Wow” comes from looking at would have happened if you had been long the Dow ONLY on TDMs -7,-6 and -5 every month since 1933. These results appear in Figure 2 (but you’d better brace yourself before taking a glance).
Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in the Dow ONLY on the 7th to last, 6th to last and 5th to last trading days of every month since 12/1/1933
The net result is an almost unrelenting 83 year decline of -80%.
Summary
I would guess that some readers would like me to offer a detailed and logical reason as to why this works. Unfortunately, I will have to go with my stock answer of “It beats me.” Of course, as a proud graduate of “The School of Whatever Works” (Team Cheer: “Whatever!”) I am not as interested in the “Why” of things as I am the “How Much.”
Sorry, it’s just my nature.
Jay Kaeppel
Jul 28, 2016 | educational newsletters, jay kaeppel, seasonal
We are entering an “interesting” time of year for investors (Unfortunately, that’s “Interesting” as in the ancient Chinese curse stating “May you live in interesting times”).
Now I personally I have no idea if the stock market is going to break out to the upside and rally to further new highs or if this latest lull will be followed by a painful reversal of fortune. I am willing to play the long side as long as things are holding up/moving in the right direction. But investors should be aware that the August/September timeframe is the “Danger Zone” for the stock market historically.
August/September Historically
Figure 1 speaks for itself. The chart displays the growth of $1000 invested in the Dow Jones Industrials Average only during the months of August and September every year starting in1934.
Figure 1 – Growth of $1,000 invested in Dow Jones Industrials Average (using price data only) ONLY during August and September; 12/31/1933-present
Two key takeaways:
*The net result has been a loss of -53% or the past 82 year. Not exactly the kind of returns most of us are looking for.
HOWEVER
*Despite the negative net results, the fact is that the Aug/Sep period has showed a gain more often (45 times) than not (37 times).
So while caution appears to be in order, no one should assume that the next two months are doomed to show a loss.
Stocks versus Bonds
Figure 2 compares the performance of:
Ticker VFINX – Vanguard S&P 500 Index fund
*Ticker VFIIX – Vanguard Mortgage Bond Fund
(*VFIIX is used as a proxy for intermediate-term treasuries as it has a high correlation to IT treasuries and a longer data history. Any short-to-intermediate term treasury fund or ETF would likely produce similar results)
The test starts in 1980 (when VFIIX started trading) and shows the total return for buying and holding each fund ONLY during the months of August and September each year since.
Figure 2 – Growth of $1,000 invested in VFINX (stocks; blue line) versus VFIIX (bonds; red line); August 1980 to present
Summary
So what will it be this year? A breakout to new highs? Or something much worse? I wish I could tell you the answer. But at least now you have some information to help guide your “speculative” versus “conservative” instincts in the months ahead.
Jay Kaeppel
English