chapter 5

Seasonal investing and seasonal affective disorder

The nineteenth-century poet John Keats wrote: ‘Four seasons fill the measure of the year; there are four seasons in the mind of man’ (‘The Human Seasons’, 1819). The same is true when it comes to playing the stock market successfully. Investors not only have to know when is the best time to be invested in the market, but also when to take a break on the sidelines. Like the seasons, the performance of sectors also changes throughout the year.

Seasonal investing

The City saying ‘Sell in May and go away’, to come back to the markets after St Leger Day (the last major horse race of the flat season) in September, certainly has merit. The six-month period from the start of May to the ...

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