Sell in May And Go Away

It’s going to be (gasp, shudder) May in a very few days, and May, according to The Stock Trader’s Almanac, does not just bring   flowers, it also brings declining stock prices. In fact, STA’s editor, Jeffrey Hirsch, has been reported as already getting ready to head for the exit doors.

But if you nose around on the Internet, you’ll find that, in Canada, they “go away” from the market by buying gold and bank stocks. You’ll also find that there are differing definitions of May — some say the end of April is when one should vamoose; others say the end of May. And what of November — the beginning or the end?

If you are of a tactical bent, selling in May is a seasonality play. If you are really tactical, you might want to short something and go long on something else. Some histories show July and April as being good months and September being bad. You could get beaten up badly by playing this summer-winter game. I don’t think Warren Buffett much cares if he buys a new company for Berkshire in in the summer or the winter, do you?  

You may find everything you need to know about “Sell in May and Go Away” on Google or Bing. Or, you could continue to find high-quality companies and funds for your customers. You could even do a bit of both, right?   

Yesterday, around these parts, was the Sand Springs Herbal Affair, an herb festival that, for our household, marks the real beginning of spring — that and the once-a-week Saturday farmers’ market that started up again last week on Tulsa’s Cherry Street. (Sand Springs is a nice community about 15 miles down the pike.) As to stocks and funds, the market has been up, many traders are bullish (only about 11% are flat-out bearish, according to this week’s Barron’s), and the sun seems to be shining both on investments and on the United States.