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Hope you had a very happy Valentine’s Day!
Don’t let the S&P 500's inability to close at a record high this past week break your heart. Yes, the index flirted with its all-time high but couldn’t quite close above it. Here’s a good reason for optimism, though: Did you know that March is typically a relatively healthy month for stocks?
The Seasonality Chart below shows that in February, over the last 10 years, the S&P 500 ($SPX) closed higher than it opened 50% of the time. On average, the index declined 0.3% in the same month.
But March is a different story. Over the last 10 years, the S&P 500 closed higher than it opened 67% of the time, with an average increase of 0.8%. It keeps getting better until July, after which the index declines for a few months and then kicks back into gear in November and December. So, there’s a lot to look forward to.
The nice thing about the Seasonality chart is that you can increase or decrease the number of years to analyze using the slider below the chart. If you were to look at a 5-year Seasonality chart of the S&P 500, the chart would paint a more positive picture. Give it a try. Drag the left end of the slider and slide it towards the right until you see the number 5 on the slider bar.
The following are some other useful things you can do with the Seasonality chart:
- View the chart in different formats by selecting the icons on the left of the slider bar.
- Compare the performance of two symbols. For example, you can examine the performance of the VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) against that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).
- Enter any symbol from the StockCharts database in the “Seasonality of” box and do a thorough analysis.
Learn more about Seasonality Charts from our Support Center article.
The +1: If you’re an OptionsPlay Add-On subscriber, you don’t want to miss the “How to Grow Your Options Trading Account” webinar. Tony Zhang will go over some advanced options trading strategies so you can take your options trading level up a notch. As a subscriber, you should have received an invite earlier.
If you’re not an OptionsPlay Add-On subscriber, you’re missing out. But not to worry. There will be many more of these “members only” webinars in the future. Sign up for the OptionsPlay Add-On now so you never have to miss these amazing gatherings!
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