Investing on the First Day of the Month

The S&P 500 has risen on the first trading day of the month for 19 of the last 24 months — and today looks like it will be another “up” for the index.

How well does the market perform on the first day of the month?

Let’s put it this way: Since 1996, the S&P 500’s return on the first day of the month has outpaced the rest of the month combined…by far…even though the days in the rest of the month outnumber first days by a ratio of 20-to-1.

The total gain for the 183 first days of the month is 76.49%. The gain for the other 3,657 days comes to just 21.97%.

Posted by on April 1st, 2011 at 2:56 pm


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