As well as the seasonality of the year, there are other calendrical cycles such as the week or the month. Today, we are going to consider the performance of the S&P 500, analysed by looking at the days of the week from the year 2000. Believe it or not, there are individual days of the week that perform significantly better than others!
Tuesday especially firm
This first chart shows you in black the annualized performance of the S&P 500 since the turn of the millennium, as well as each day of the week in blue.
I always measure from close to close; the performance of Tuesday, for example, is the performance from Monday’s close to Tuesday’s close.
S&P 500, performance by weekdays, 2000 to 6/2023
Tuesday is almost as good as the overall period. Source: Seasonax
As you can see, one day stood out positively: Tuesday. Tuesday alone has a better stock market performance than all five trading days combined! Tuesdays rose an annualized 3.98%, compared to 4.81% for the S&P 500.
Monday and Friday, on the other hand, were weak on average.
The difference, measured over no less than 5,933 trading days, is already very clear. This indicates that it is not a matter of coincidence.
But what does this look like in the individual stock market phases – bear markets and bull markets?
The days of the week under the magnifying glass
The next chart shows in black the development of the returns of the S&P 500 since the turn of the millennium, as well as those on individual weekdays in other colors.
S&P 500, performance trend per weekday, 2000 to 06/2023
Tuesday went up even in bear markets! Source: Seasonax
The red line confirms that Tuesday (red) alone performed almost as well as the S&P overall – and with less volatility.
Now take a closer look at performance in the bear markets after 2000, during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 Corona Crash.
Even during these difficult stock market times, Tuesdays were quite decent.
In the 2008 and 2020 crashes, Tuesdays actually rose significantly, bucking the market trend.
The days of the week in Seasonax
You too can display the days of the week for all instruments in Seasonax. All you have to do is call up a value. The weekday history appears immediately below the seasonal chart.
Seasonax screen, with weekday history
The history by days of the week appears immediately. Source: Seasonax
It is that easy to find out how your favorite instrument performs over the course of a week.
Why not try it out right now at www.seasonax.com
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Originally Posted July 6, 2023 – S&P 500: Which is the best day of the week?
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thank you
Thank you for reading, Alan!
So as far as buying into a low cost S&P 500 index fund goes:
– FXAIX (Fidelity S&P500 index fund) 0.015% fee
– SWPPX (Charles Schwab S&P 500 index fund) 0.020% fee
– VFIAX (Vanguard S&P 500 index fund) 0.040% fee
The best day to buy on a weekly basis would be when the market closes on Monday evening (index funds only transact once per day M-F).
I set up my Fidelity account to automatically transfer cash to my brokerage account on Fridays and have the investment into the S&P 500 fund on Monday evenings close price.