The best six months of the stock market year are November 1st through April 30th. Switching from equities to bonds beginning May 1st has produced astounding results. Usually.
Over the last 58 years (according to the Stock Market Almanac) this strategy has gained 11564.09 Dow points. During the opposite periods, May 1st through October we gained 1041.71 Dow points.
Lets take a $10,000 investment and see what it looks like for the same periods. November through April (again, 58 years) produced a gain of $531,444. The May-October gain was $1,021 (not a typo).
There are always exceptions. The April 1970 Cambodian invasion, the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and the 2003, Iraq invasion either muted or produced losses for the periods.
