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Are stock markets really so inefficient? The case of the “Halloween Indicator”

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  • Dichtl, Hubert
  • Drobetz, Wolfgang

Abstract

The old and simple investment strategy “Sell in May and Go Away” (also referred to as the “Halloween effect”) enjoys an unbroken popularity. Recent studies suggest that the Halloween effect even strengthened rather than weakened since its first publication by Bouman and Jacobsen (2002). We implement regression models as well as Hansen’s (2005) “Superior Predictive Ability” test to analyze whether stock markets are really so inefficient. In line with the predictions of market efficiency, our results reject the hypothesis that a trading strategy based on the Halloween effect significantly outperforms.

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  • Dichtl, Hubert & Drobetz, Wolfgang, 2014. "Are stock markets really so inefficient? The case of the “Halloween Indicator”," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 112-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:11:y:2014:i:2:p:112-121
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2013.10.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Guo, Biao & Luo, Xingguo & Zhang, Ziding, 2014. "Sell in May and Go Away: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 362-368.
    2. Urquhart, Andrew & McGroarty, Frank, 2014. "Calendar effects, market conditions and the Adaptive Market Hypothesis: Evidence from long-run U.S. data," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 154-166.
    3. Plastun, Alex & Sibande, Xolani & Gupta, Rangan & Wohar, Mark E., 2020. "Halloween Effect in developed stock markets: A historical perspective," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 130-138.
    4. Degenhardt, Thomas & Auer, Benjamin R., 2018. "The “Sell in May” effect: A review and new empirical evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 169-205.
    5. Schmidbauer, Harald & Rösch, Angi & Uluceviz, Erhan, 2017. "Frequency aspects of information transmission in a network of three western equity markets," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 486(C), pages 933-946.
    6. Hubert Dichtl, 2020. "Investing in the S&P 500 index: Can anything beat the buy‐and‐hold strategy?," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(2), pages 352-378, April.
    7. Lobão, Júlio, 2019. "Seasonal anomalies in the market for American depository receipts," Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, Universidad ESAN, vol. 24(48), pages 241-265.
    8. Dichtl, Hubert & Drobetz, Wolfgang, 2015. "Sell in May and Go Away: Still good advice for investors?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 29-43.
    9. Alex Plastun & Xolani Sibande & Rangan Gupta & Mark E. Wohar, 2019. "Halloween Effect in Developed Stock Markets: A US Perspective," Working Papers 201914, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    10. Haibin Xie & Qilin Qin & Shouyang Wang, 2016. "Is Halloween Effect a New Puzzle? Evidence from Price Gap," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 6, pages 19-31, November.
    11. Kenourgios, Dimitris & Samios, Yiannis, 2021. "Halloween effect and active fund management," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 534-544.
    12. Dragos Stefan Oprea, 2014. "The Halloween Effect Evidence from Romania," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 4(7), pages 463-471, July.
    13. Harald Schmidbauer & Angi Rösch & Erhan Uluceviz & Narod Erkol, 2016. "Are American and European equity markets in phase? --- Frequency aspects of return and volatility spillovers," EcoMod2016 9559, EcoMod.
    14. Shanaev, Savva & Shuraeva, Arina & Fedorova, Svetlana, 2022. "The Groundhog Day stock market anomaly," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PA).
    15. Baur, Dirk G. & Dichtl, Hubert & Drobetz, Wolfgang & Wendt, Viktoria-Sophie, 2020. "Investing in gold – Market timing or buy-and-hold?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Berger, Theo & Gençay, Ramazan, 2018. "Improving daily Value-at-Risk forecasts: The relevance of short-run volatility for regulatory quality assessment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 30-46.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sell in May; Stock market anomaly; Reality check; Superior Predictive Ability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G17 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Financial Forecasting and Simulation

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