Tendencia anual del Dow Jones

Here’s a look at how the Dow has performed, on average, throughout the year. I used all the daily closings since 1896.

Looking at the annual trend, there are two basic surges. The biggie is from October 29 to May 6, when the Dow rises 7.79%, which is about 93% of the annual gain. The rest of the time, the Dow gains just 0.49%. The other big surge is from May 25 to September 6 when the Dow rises an average of 4.72%.

The average sell-off from May 6 to May 25 is -1.25%, and the one from September 6 to October 29 is -2.82%.

The most impressive short-term gain is from December 21 to January 7 when the Dow averages a gain of 3.39%. To put that in some perspective, the Dow’s annual gain is 8.32%. This means that more than 40% of the Dow’s yearly gain has come during this brief stretch which is less than 1/20 of the entire year.