Sell in May....?

holzie said: "Just my thoughts here. I told dumaman this too. Everytime I stayed in the market after the 1st quarter earnings till summer, I lost money. So I would probably be selling everything 1 week before the earnings quarter is over and start picking it up in July/August. My 2 cents."

Rbreb13 said: "A lot of people follow the "Go Away In May" theory. So it basically becomes a self fullfilling prophecy. I to am planning on getting out of some of my holdings and watching the others very carefully. Edit: After the way the market tanked last year in May it'll probably happen again this year. Just because people will look back and get scared."

Rickster said: "The Feb dip, although it consisted of two steps (most evident if you look at individual stock price action) did not have a commensurate second drop (much to my chagrin). The market then recovered strongly, breaking to new highs. This tells me the bulls are clearly in control. IMO, the dip was just a shake out (mainly to shake out weak or overextended option sellers). The sell in May and go away thing tends to skip years in order to throw off those that focus on how it was last year. Plant design engineers are in higher demand than I have seen for decades. Those engineers are busy writing specifications for new equipment. Those specifications turn into purchase orders. Stand by for a boom in the industrial equipment suppliers, many of which happen to have low valuations at this time. Here is an example of what happens when the orders hit. [url]http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=000150.ks&t=5y[/url] This company is up by a factor of 9 in the last two years. They have been getting orders for nuclear power reactor vessels (and other things). The contracts for reactor vessels are issued first because of the time it takes to build them. Orders for smaller items (pumps, valve piping controls) follow. Japanese suppliers currently have very low valuations due the way their financial system is structured. But that is in the process of changing. I would like to see a sell off in May. But regardless, I expect to be buying in May. I have already started loading the truck."

MSCantrell said: "[QUOTE=holzie]Just my thoughts here. I told dumaman this too. Everytime I stayed in the market after the 1st quarter earnings till summer, I lost money. So I would probably be selling everything 1 week before the earnings quarter is over and start picking it up in July/August. My 2 cents.[/QUOTE] So... shouldn't the other side of the [b]Sell In May[/b] coin be "[b]Buy In June[/b]"?"

drdan said: "Actually the other side of the coin is [B]Buy in October[/B] after the low. The theory is that traders take vacations starting in June and lasting till September/October and there is a general pattern that has developed. Some study gets passed around every once in awhile that states that you would do so many percentage points better if you bought the market in October and sold in May, stay out in the summer months, than if you held straight through the year. Maybe as an investor that holds true but as a trader as long as I follow the pattern I should still be profitable no matter the market conditions."

newinvestor123 said: "I've read 5 articles on the 'sell in May' theory, and the consensus seems to be that this May will be one of the exceptions."

JAP said: "[quote=newinvestor123]I've read 5 articles on the 'sell in May' theory, and the consensus seems to be that this May will be one of the exceptions.[/quote] Correction day will be on my birthday, May 4th. Nice B-day present, huh? :)"

holzie said: "Hehe we can only see. They can be saying that this May and summer will be an exception but its like predicting the weather in my opinion. Statistically, its gonna be a dry season so that's what I am gonna be prepared for. My buying will start in September. I am not saying that I will be 100% cash, I am saying that my positions will be severly reduced over the summer and my strategies will reflect this anticipation. Good luck everyone :)"