For good measure I am surprised Forsyth didn’t mention September 1929, the market peak leading into the Great Depression.
Of course, it’s not just the calendar that has Forsyth’s attention. It’s trade negotiations, the Fed/ interest rates and the midterm elections. The same holds true for the fine folks at CNBC who also raised the cruel September issue. (September is always a tough month for stocks but this year there are even more hazards).
According to Ed Yardeni (Yardeni Research Inc.), since 1928 the month of September has been the most unprofitable month of the year to own stocks (down an average of 1%). February and May over the same 90 year period have also been losers, down an average of 1/10 of one percent each. On the other, hand the other 8 months of the year have averaged positive results during the 90-years. The main point here is that these data points are all noise and insignificant in the context of a Dow Jones Industrial Average that has risen from its 1929 high of 381.17 to a close last Friday of 25,964.82. ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS BE THERE! — thru wars, natural disasters, depressions, recessions, etc. — ALL YOU HAD T0 DO WAS BE INVESTED IN A DIVERSE PORTFOLIO OF STOCKS.
It is truly sad that much of the financial media spends most of its time on the potential negatives associated with owning stocks (bad news sells) and very little on the wealth-creating machine that stock ownership is.
What’s your take?
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