The Best Months for Stock Market Gains

The Best Months for Stock Market Gains

Many investors believe that equity markets perform better during certain times of the year.

Is there any truth to these claims, or is it superstitious nonsense? This infographic uses data gathered by Schroders, a British asset management firm, to investigate.

What the Data Says

This analysis is based on 31 years of performance across four major stock indexes:

• FTSE 100: An index of the top 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)
• MSCI World: An index of over 1,000 large and mid-cap companies within developed markets
• S&P 500: An index of the 500 largest companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges
• Eurostoxx 50: An index of the top 50 blue-chip stocks within the Eurozone region

The percentages in the following table represent the historical frequency of these indexes rising in a given month, between the years 1987 and 2018. Months are ordered from best to worst, in descending order.

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