There’s an old saying in markets: So goes January, so goes the year.
Investors better hope it’s not true. The S&P 500 currently sits higher by 36 points on the day to 4362. That puts the month-to-date move at -8.47%. The all-time worst January was in 2009, which produced an 8.6% decline.
To beat that, the index would need to fall just 10 points from current levels with less than 2 hours to go.
This chart from @HedgeyeDJ shows every January going back to 1930.
There is good news on the axiom front though. Last year the index fell 1.1% in January only to power to an enormous annual rally.
And what of February? Over the past 20 years it’s the third worst month for the index.
This article was originally published by Forexlive.com. Read the original article here.