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This September Was a GOOD Month for the S&P 500 Index!
By JLP | October 1, 2007
Remember my post from a month ago about how September was a bad month for stocks? Well, this past September was pretty darn good (and my numbers don’t even include dividends):
S&P 500 Index September 2007 Performance:
1,473.99 – closing price on August 31, 2007
1,526.75 – closing price on September 28, 2007
That’s a 3.58% gain for the month of September. Since 1926 the average September total return (including dividends) was -.76%.
The point? Although it’s fun to look at the numbers and analyze different scenarios, the best course of action for most people is to decide on an asset allocation plan and simply dollar-cost-average into low-cost index mutual funds and forget it.
I’ll never be able to forget it because I enjoy this stuff too much.
Topics: Investing | 3 Comments »
October 1st, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Trading based upon historical averages for a month is pretty sketchy. Also, the other indicators they try to use like the Super Bowl indicator and so on, sure makes it seem like some in the market are either crazy or have too much time on their hands. Recent Septembers have been pretty good.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
In my business (financial education) it is hard to find the balance between teaching people to care about their finances and being day traders. We want people to be engaged and care about the market but harness their fears that might be associated!
October 1st, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Dow sets a high today when Citi declares 60% dip in profits, UBS writes off $3.4 billion, housing woes are getting worse. Is this another bout of “irrational exuberance”?
The investor in me agrees with you – index and cost averaging is the way to go. The trader wants to speculate on another correction and maybe opportunities to short the market. Q4 should be interesting.