S&P 500 - Sell in May, return anther day. The truth - 2025No doubt everyone has heard a variation of the phrase:
“Sell in May, return another day.”
In Wikipedia it is written:
“Sell in May and go away is an investment strategy for stocks based on a theory (sometimes known as the Halloween indicator) that the period from November to April inclusive has significantly stronger stock market growth on average than the other months. In such strategies, stock holdings are sold or minimised at about the start of May and the proceeds held in cash”
A public comment from last year:
“Over 100 years ago, the (practical) reason to sell in May and September, was to pay seasonal workers to seed the field (May) and to harvest (September). Caravans of landlords and farm owners went to New York to sell stocks and withdrew money from the banks to do payrolls
so for people without agricultural business, i'll say it's okay to hold in May”
If we are to take all this at face value then we should be unwinding our long term positions until the Autumn?
What does the chart say?
On the above monthly chart of the S&P 500 each vertical line marks the month of May going back to 2012. That is a dataset of 13 points.
The facts:
1) From the month of May onwards, 11 from 13 periods returned positive price action of not less than 10%. Selling in May was a bad choice.
2) 2015 and 2022 saw corrections of 15% from May onwards. However in both examples the correction was erased within 12 months as the index continued the uptrend.
In summary, 86% of the time a minimum return of 10% was seen before the year end. Amazing odds.
Furthermore, corrections up and until the end of April (like we’re now seeing) represented some of the best long opportunities.
Sell in May go away? I suggest it should be: Buy in June and watch it boom!
Ww
