As of 10/07/2024
Indus: 41,954 -398.51 -0.9%
Trans: 15,783 -31.37 -0.2%
Utils: 1,027 -24.05 -2.3%
Nasdaq: 17,924 -213.95 -1.2%
S&P 500: 5,696 -55.13 -1.0%
|
YTD
+11.3%
-0.7%
+16.5%
+19.4%
+19.4%
|
43,500 or 41,600 by 10/15/2024
16,800 or 15,700 by 10/15/2024
1,125 or 1,025 by 10/15/2024
19,000 or 17,600 by 10/15/2024
5,900 or 5,600 by 10/15/2024
|
As of 10/07/2024
Indus: 41,954 -398.51 -0.9%
Trans: 15,783 -31.37 -0.2%
Utils: 1,027 -24.05 -2.3%
Nasdaq: 17,924 -213.95 -1.2%
S&P 500: 5,696 -55.13 -1.0%
|
YTD
+11.3%
-0.7%
+16.5%
+19.4%
+19.4%
| |
43,500 or 41,600 by 10/15/2024
16,800 or 15,700 by 10/15/2024
1,125 or 1,025 by 10/15/2024
19,000 or 17,600 by 10/15/2024
5,900 or 5,600 by 10/15/2024
| ||
This article discusses a method which counts the number of days in which price closed higher or lower from the prior close. Those days of the week with the fewest number of up closes represent buy days. Those with the most up closes are sell days.
Based on the results, in a bear market, buy on Monday (best in 2007-2009) or Tuesday (best in 2000-2002) and sell on Thursday (best in both bear markets).
For a bull market, buy on Friday (best in both bull markets) and sell on Wednesday (best in both periods) or Thursday (best in 2009-2010).
This research is one of the easiest to conduct. You can do it on a spreadsheet easily enough. I used my own program to begin counting the number of times a stock closed higher or lower each day of the week. For example, if Monday closed higher than Friday, I would add a 1 to Monday's "closing up" column. Then I would compare Tuesday's close to Monday's. If Tuesday's close was higher, I would add 1 to Tuesday's "closing up" total. If the following week Tuesday closed lower than the prior day, then I would add 1 to the "total count" for Tuesday. If I were to stop there, Tuesday would have 1 up count out of 2 samples, or 50%. I did this for each day of the week, for the market indexes over various time frames. The remainder of this document discusses the results.
The above chart shows all available data on the various indexes, ending 3/26/2010. I show the Dow utilities in green, the Dow transports in red, Dow industrials in blue, Nasdaq composite in pink, and S&P 500 in yellow. Values above 50 means the day closed higher; below 50 means lower closes predominated.
For example, the utilities show Monday as having the most up days, at 54.3% of the total. The day with the fewest up closes over the Friday's close is Thursday, with only 48.6% closing higher.
The following table picks out the highlights. I consider the best day to buy is when the index closes lower that day. You can buy in at a cheaper price. Columns above 50 have more higher than lower closes. Those are the best days to sell near the close.
If you are a day trader, you might want to buy in at the market open and sell at the close on those days shown to post a higher close. For short sellers, do the reverse, sell at the open and cover at the close on those days more likely to post a lower close. That is just a general rule, of course, and market events will affect your strategy.
Index | Best Sell Day | Best Buy Day | Data Start |
Dow Utilities | Monday or Friday | Thursday | 1/2/1990 |
Dow Transports | Monday | Thursday | 1/2/1990 |
Dow Industrials | Wednesday or Friday | Monday | 10/1/1928 |
Nasdaq | Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday | Monday | 2/5/1971 |
S&P 500 | Wednesday or Friday | Monday | 1/3/1950 |
If you ignore the bull and bear market type, the best overall day to buy is Monday. To sell, chose Wednesday or Friday.
The surprising thing about this chart is the Dow utilities showing a good run. They closed higher 57.9% of the time during the 2000 to 2002 bear market. The S&P 500 closed up the fewest number of times on Tuesday (41.1%). Also notice how many of the columns close below 50%. This is a bear market, after all, so lower closes should predominate (which they do, 17 to 25 or 68% of the time).
The following table shows the best buy and sell days.
Index | Best Sell Day | Best Buy Day |
Dow Utilities | Monday | Wednesday |
Dow Transports | Thursday | Monday |
Dow Industrials | Thursday | Tuesday |
Nasdaq | Thursday | Tuesday |
S&P 500 | Thursday | Tuesday |
As the table shows, Tuesday was the best buy day and Thursday was the best sell day, on average, for the major indexes.
The above chart shows the bull market sandwiched between the two bear markets. Since this is a bull market, you would expect more columns to be above 50%. A count reveals the total to be 24 out of 25 or 96% showing more up closes.
The following table identifies the best buy and sell days for the period.
Index | Best Sell Day | Best Buy Day |
Dow Utilities | Monday | Thursday |
Dow Transports | Monday | Friday |
Dow Industrials | Tuesday or Wednesday | Thursday |
Nasdaq | Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday | Friday |
S&P 500 | Wednesday | Friday |
For this bull period, the best buy days are Friday's and the best sell days are Wednesday's
The above chart shows the most recent bear market, from 2007 to 2009. Fifteen out of 25 columns, or 60%, were below 50%.
Index | Best Sell Day | Best Buy Day |
Dow Utilities | Tuesday | Thursday |
Dow Transports | Thursday | Monday |
Dow Industrials | Thursday | Monday |
Nasdaq | Tuesday | Monday |
S&P 500 | Thursday | Monday |
This bear market shows the best buy days as Monday's (the prior bear market was Tuesday's) and sell days as Thursday's (no change from the 2000 to 2002 bear market).
The above chart shows the most recent bull market, measured from the end of the 2009 bear market. Since it's only been a year, not many samples exist. On this chart, 22 out of 25 columns, or 88%, show more up closes.
The following table identifies the best buy and sell days for the period.
Index | Best Sell Day | Best Buy Day |
Dow Utilities | Monday | Wednesday |
Dow Transports | Friday | Tuesday |
Dow Industrials | Thursday | Tuesday |
Nasdaq | Wednesday | Friday |
S&P 500 | Thursday | Friday |
The table shows that the best day to buy is Friday and sell on Wednesday or Thursday.
-- Thomas Bulkowski. Donate now to keep this website free.
Support this site! Clicking any of the books (below) takes you to
Amazon.com If you buy ANYTHING while there, they pay for the referral.
Legal notice for paid links: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."
My Stock Market Books
|
My Novels
|
The first piece of luggage out of the chute doesn't belong to anyone, ever.