Market Gains By Month

We posted here back in May about Market Cycles.  Here's a different way to view that via a chart posted over at The Big Picture  {Chart itself is from the Chart Store}.  It shows the monthly average percentage gain or loss for the S&P 500.  According to this analysis, February, May and September are the worst months in terms of market performance.  May's almost 9% loss can certainly qualify it as a bad month.  In fact it was horrible.  You have to go back to 1962 to find a May this bad.  The good news is that stocks historically tend to perform seasonally much better now through the summer months.  

*Long ETFs related to the S&P 500 in personal and client accounts.