You have probably read that September’s performance, after having a horrid August, was the second best on record for the Dow Jones. The bulls are running hard with this headline as means to spur optimism. They want you and all of your money invested. It is the good times again and we have momentum in our sails. Well, I went back and did a little research. Dating back to 1929, there have only been 4 instances where the stock market has increased greater than 5% in the month of September.
1939 = 13.47% record – occurred during a long-term bear market
2010 = 7.7% – occurred during a long-term bear market
1954 = 7.36%- occurred during a long-term bull market
1973 = 6.7% – occurred during a long-term bear market
1939 and 1973 were both years that were caught up in a long-term bear markets. What is a long-term bear market? It is a long period of time (usually on average of 15 to 20 years) where the market goes either down or nowhere at all. I would suggest that we started a long-term bear market in January 2000.
You can contrast long-term bear markets with a long-term bull market where the market goes up over a long period of time. Said another way, they both represent long period of times where it is either good or bad for investors.
Following those big September months, the following occurred:
September 1939 – The Dow Jones made a top in that month and proceeded to decline -40% into a bottom April 1942.
September 1973 – The Dow Jones saw a top the following October and proceeded to decline -36% to a bottom in December 1974.
The only exception to the rule was in 1954 which was in the middle of a long-term bull market. It continued to increase in value.
With everyone pulling out the party hats, as an investor, you might want to start looking for the valet ticket. The police are on the way and this party might just be getting ready to get busted up.
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