Please, dear Santa, bring us the gift of a market rally
It is that time of the year, with December on our doorstep, and Santa Claus is coming to town. Will he surprise us with a gift rally or will he come empty-handed and punish us further?
My analysis of the markets behaviour in December over the past 23 years since 1995 (after the abolishment of the financial rand) makes for interesting reading.
The US market as measured by the S&P 500 index and developed markets as measured by the MSCI World index in dollars experienced rallies (positive returns) in December 2017 out of the 23 years or 74percent of the time and negative returns in six years or 26percent of the time.
In the case of the South African market as measured by the FTSE/JSE all share index, positive returns were achieved in 14 of the 23 years or 61percent of the time and negative returns 39percent of the time.
Read the full story on: IOL.