Thought I'd share this with everyone to see what you think. It was passed on to me. A can see how this would work in that you are probably taking advantage of the fact that payroll end of month money is going into the market as well as end of month/quarter/year window dressing. Obviously we can't sell short, but it would be nice if we could. See what you think.
Calendar Studies:
We read an interesting article, Calendar Trades in Equities That Work, by Art Collins in the August 2006 issue of Futures magazine. It suggested that one of the simplest trading systems might involve simply buying and selling based upon the time of month. Art found that buying on the opening on the trading day after the 21st of the month and selling short on the opening of the day after the 6th of the month produced outstanding profits, albeit with enormous drawdowns at certain times.
Now, that is not a trading system. But, it does illustrate how the market does have pronounced monthly seasonal tendencies which might be incorporated into a trading plan. One of the simplest ways to use this information is to demand a stronger buy signal between the 6th and 21st of the month and to demand a stronger sell signal between the 21st and 6th. This would likely help keep you in tune with the monthly seasonal trend.
One of the most interesting things about the study was that the short trades were profitable. The stock market has a strong overall uptrend, so one would think that short selling would be unprofitable if done half of the time, but, no, it's not. That suggests the monthly seasonal trend is actually stronger than the underlying uptrend in the stock market.