Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yom Kippur | Jeff Hirsch

Source: Jeff Hirsch's Almanac Trader

One saying for equities on Wall Street has historically been to “sell Rosh Hashanah" (Oct 3-4, 2016 (Mon-Tue)), and to "buy Yom Kippur" (Oct 12, 2016 (Wed)). Or was it vice versa?

Jeff Hirsch presents the data back to 1971: "When the holiday falls on a weekend the prior market close is used. It’s no coincidence that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur fall in September and/or October, two dangerous and opportune months. We then took it a step further and calculated the return from Yom Kippur to Passover.

[...] Perhaps it’s Talmudic wisdom but, selling stocks before the eight-day span of the high holidays has avoided many declines, especially during uncertain times. While being long Yom Kippur to Passover has produced more than twice as many advances, averaging gains of 7.0%. It often pays to be a contrarian when old bromides are tossed around, buying instead of selling Yom Kippur – and selling Passover."