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Stock Market Efficiency Withstands Another Challenge: Solving the "Sell in May/Buy after Halloween" Puzzle*

* This paper is a replication of an original study

Author

Listed:
  • Edwin D. Maberly
  • Raylene M. Pierce

Abstract

Examining the years 1970 to 1998, Bouman and Jacobsen (2002) document unusually high monthly returns during the November-April periods for both United States (U.S.) and foreign stock markets and label this phenomenon the Halloween effect. Their research suggests that the Halloween effect represents an exploitable anomaly and has negative implications for claims of stock market efficiency. Re-examining Bouman and Jacobsen’s empirical results for the U.S. reveals that their results are driven by two outliers, the “Crash†of October 1987 and the collapse of the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in August 1998. After inserting a dummy variable to account for the impact of the two identified outliers, the Halloween effect becomes statistically insignificant. This anomaly is not economically exploitable for U.S. equity markets. We extend the research to the S&P 500 futures contract and find no evidence of an exploitable Halloween effect over the period April 1982-April 2003.

Suggested Citation

  • Edwin D. Maberly & Raylene M. Pierce, 2004. "Stock Market Efficiency Withstands Another Challenge: Solving the "Sell in May/Buy after Halloween" Puzzle," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 1(1), pages 29-46, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:1:y:2004:i:1:p:29-46
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F, 1991. "Efficient Capital Markets: II," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1575-1617, December.
    2. Sven Bouman & Ben Jacobsen, 2002. "The Halloween Indicator, "Sell in May and Go Away": Another Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1618-1635, December.
    3. Jensen, Michael C., 1978. "Some anomalous evidence regarding market efficiency," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2-3), pages 95-101.
    4. Dusak, Katherine, 1973. "Futures Trading and Investor Returns: An Investigation of Commodity Market Risk Premiums," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(6), pages 1387-1406, Nov.-Dec..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fakhrul Hasan & Basil Al-Najjar, 2025. "Calendar anomalies and dividend announcements effects on the stock markets returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 829-859, February.
    2. Dumitriu, Ramona & Stefanescu, Razvan & Nistor, Costel, 2012. "The Halloween effect during quiet and turbulent times," MPRA Paper 41539, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 Sep 2012.
    3. Erdemlioglu, Deniz & Petitjean, Mikael & Vargas, Nicolas, 2021. "Market instability and technical trading at high frequency: Evidence from NASDAQ stocks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Stefanescu, Razvan & Dumitriu, Ramona & Nistor, Costel, 2012. "Prolonged holiday effects on Romanian capital market before and after the adhesion to EU," MPRA Paper 52770, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2013.
    5. Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Naheed Rabbani, 2019. "Market Conditions and Calendar Anomalies in Japanese Stock Returns," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 26(2), pages 187-209, June.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Peter Arendas & Viera Malacka & Maria Schwarzova, 2018. "A Closer Look at the Halloween Effect: The Case of the Dow Jones Industrial Average," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-12, April.
    10. CIOBANU Gheorghe & SECHEL Ioana Cristina, 2013. "Paradoxes Of Modern Stock Exchange Markets," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 89-96, July.
    11. Júlio Lobão & Ana C. Costa, 2023. "The Adaptive Dynamics of the Halloween Effect: Evidence from a 120-Year Sample from a Small European Market," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, January.
    12. Ramona DUMITRIU & Razvan STEFANESCU, 2014. "Gone Fishin’ Effects In Returns," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 254-261.
    13. Zvezdin, Nikolay, 2019. "Tranched Value Securities," MPRA Paper 92302, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Gualter Couto & Pedro Pimentel & Catarina Barbosa & Rui Alexandre Castanho, 2021. "The Month-of-the-Year Effect in the European, American, Australian and Asian Markets," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, November.
    17. Carrazedo, Tiago & Curto, José Dias & Oliveira, Luís, 2016. "The Halloween effect in European sectors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 489-500.
    18. Edwin Maberly & Raylene Pierce, 2003. "The Halloween Effect and Japanese Equity Prices: Myth or Exploitable Anomaly," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 10(4), pages 319-334, December.
    19. 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.
    20. Tomasz Schabek & Henrique Castro, 2017. "“Sell not only in May”. Seasonal Effects on Stock Markets," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 17, pages 5-18.
    21. 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.
    22. Eddie C. M. Hui & Ka Kwan Kevin Chan, 2018. "Testing Calendar Effects of International Equity and Real Estate Markets," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 140-158, January.
    23. H. Douglas Witte, 2010. "Outliers and the Halloween Effect: Comment on Maberly and Pierce," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 7(1), pages 91-98, January.
    24. Dirk Swagerman & Ivan Novakovic, 2010. "Multi-National Evidence On Calendar Patterns In Stock Returns: An Empirical Case Study On Investment Strategy And The Halloween Effect," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(4), pages 23-42.

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    Replication

    This item is a replication of:
  • Sven Bouman & Ben Jacobsen, 2002. "The Halloween Indicator, "Sell in May and Go Away": Another Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1618-1635, December.

    • More about this item

    Keywords

    efficient markets; trading rules; outliers; anomalies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Stock Market Efficiency Withstands Another Challenge: Solving the "Sell in May/Buy after Halloween" Puzzle (EJW 2004) in ReplicationWiki

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