"Sell in May and Go Away" Isn't as Useful as It Once Was
One of the oldest adages on Wall Street -- "sell in May and go away" -- has held that it is in investors' best interest to sell their stocks at the beginning of May and return to the market at the start of November.Actually, yes, but not as much as it once did.To study the accuracy of this axiom, also known as the Halloween indicator because it suggests buying stocks right after Oct. 31, my research assistants and I pulled all data on various stock classes going back to the 1950s. These groupings were U.S. growth stocks, U.S. value stocks, large- and small-cap U.S. stocks, and international stocks.With these groupings, we then looked at two periods: before 2000 and after 2000 through 2023. And within each of these date ranges, we looked at average returns and volatility for the period from May to October versus the rest of the year .In all, it appears that there is still some truth to "sell in May and go away" in the 21 century as you can indeed score higher returns by s
