Years Ending In... (Preview)

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Since we are at the inception of a new year and a new decade (if you adhere to the notion that the decade begins with 2020 and not 2021), it is sometimes useful to see how the patterns of previous years have played out. The top chart on the right is a composite of all years ending in ‘9.” The orange line shows how the “average” of all stock market years has performed. The Blue line depicts the performance only of years ending in ‘9,’ and you can see that it is strong. Typically there is a decline early in the year (January-February) and then it’s off to the races for the remainder of the year – with minor corrections in May-June and September-October. The year that just concluded (2019) didn’t fit that pattern exactly, but it was certainly a very bullish year (Compare the chart in Figure 1 on Page 1).

In 2019, there was a strong rally at the beginning of the year – not a decline, but there were minor corrections in May and August-September...

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