The Worst Month of the Year
Courtesy of Michael Batnick
According to a recent study, of the 47 most-damaging hurricanes between 1950 and 2012, storms with male names produced an average of 23 deaths, while those with feminine names killed 45 people on average. In less absurd, but still true studies, September has historically been the worst month of the year for stocks. In fact, it’s the only month that’s been negative, on average.
The negative superlatives don’t stop there. Seven of the worst 26 months ever happened in September. If money was only invested in this month, $100 in 1926 would turn into $42 today.
Furthermore, if you were to invest in every month but September, you came out way ahead, outperforming by around 1% a year.
September was up more than up one percent 42% of the time, but that wasn’t enough for it to overcome the seven months that were down double digits. So yeah, it’s true, September has by far been the worst month historically. But are you really going to act on this? Come on. I mean really, come on.
