Halloween, eh?

After cogitating on that "Irrational Decision" stuff, I wondered if'n investors are frightened by Halloween hobgoblins, witches and ghosts. Perhaps, fearing untoward events, they dump their stock at the end of October. Perhaps, compared to other end-of-month returns, the return (the close on Oct 31 vs the previous day's close) is dramatically less. Perhaps (Mean of Oct 31 returns) - (Mean of ALL end-of-month returns) ... this difference is dramatically negative. So I check a gaggle of end-of-October stock returns (mostly DOW stocks) over the last 10 years: Mamma mia! It's clear! The hobgoblins are nice guys on Halloween, eh? ------------------------------ 'course, there may be other end-of-month returns that are attacked caressed by hobgoblins. Working on the assumption "How goes the DOW,so goes the World" I play with the DOW: Now the hobgoblin effect is evident. They don't like short months: Here's February: Did I mention that there's a spreadsheet to play with? http://www.gummy-stuff.org/Excel/halloween.xls ------------------------------ P.S. There's this "Sell in May and Go Away" called the Halloween Indicator. Anybuddy believe it? If so, BUY NOW! ------------------------------ Did I mention my Contest portfolio? It dropped 5.3% on Oct 30?