Sell in May and go away ?

[Fermion]

I am up 38% YTD and sold in May....I just don't know when to buy back...maybe not until December?

 

[audreyh1]

Gartman says to give up, as the market is not going to correct ant time soon. (Hes's been calling for a correction for most of this year so far, except for the times he's said it's going to rally!!!)

'Abundantly wrong' to expect correction: Gartman

 

[audreyh1]

BTW - last year we had a pretty good run up into May, and the market did correct (well, close - 6% or so) in late May, before talking off like a rocket in the fall.

But this year it's really not up that much, eve with the S&P trading above 1900.

 

[NW-Bound]

Gartman says to give up, as the market is not going to correct ant time soon. (Hes's been calling for a correction for most of this year so far, except for the times he's said it's going to rally!!!)

'Abundantly wrong' to expect correction: Gartman

I do not even know who Gartman is, but from your description of his records, it could be time to sell all and run for the hill.

 

[frayne]

I think maybe we need a newbe title category "confused about testing meat thermometers."

 

[NYEXPAT]

I'll bet there are some on here who claim to never change allocation, but when the market drops big they come back and tell you how they took equity $s off the table and avoided the big hit

I fully admit timing individual stocks and occasionally entire markets. I have been selling off at each successive high the past month. I am currently 90% cash and expect to be 100% cash by S&P 1950.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Apparently you have to sell in May and cross your fingers that you can buy those same stocks back for less $$ in October. Just like Frayne's OP )), this kind of article appears every May Should you sell in May as Wall St. slogan advises?

Since 1928, the 1.9% average gain for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index in the six-month span starting in May is the weakest of them all, and feeble compared with the 5.1% return in the No. 1-ranked six-month stretch ending in April, data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch show.

(It doesn't always pan out. Last year, the S&P 500 rallied 10% in the typically weak six-month period.)

BofA's statistics highlight the fact that the May-October time frame poses the highest risk of a market decline of 20% or more than any other six-month time period.

 

[NW-Bound]

BTW - last year we had a pretty good run up into May, and the market did correct (well, close - 6% or so) in late May, before talking off like a rocket in the fall.

But this year it's really not up that much, eve with the S&P trading above 1900.

So, this year the market may just drop twice as much as the run-of-the-mill 10% correction to make up for last year.

Time to sell some more... It's now or never. Oops, the market's already close while I did some community service by testing meat thermometers. Darn! Tomorrow may be too late already.

But why am I thinking of a song?

 

[ls99]

The yearly ritual, think about it, never do it, none the worse for not participating.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Fun reading all of this but I'm too lazy to do all that work and go through all the gyrations. I (we) are back in the market again which is something I said I (we) would never do. Of course I am a very cautious individual so decided to take the advice of many on this board and put it all into Wellesley Admiral. My wife made me promise to not get on the computer every night and check the fund. I've done it only once or trice since March. Here's hoping you all were giving me some good advice.