Ben Kumar: Can a ‘Tuesday strategy’ really beat a bear market?
Twitter/X can be a dangerous place. Lots of unchecked facts flying around. So I’m usually pretty sceptical about investment claims. But one of the reputable people I follow is @brett_donnelly. And during April’s market ups and downs, he said the following:
“In 2008, even as stocks fell 50%, long SPX on Tuesday was strongly positive for the year. Tuesdays tend to be reversal days in bear markets.”
To translate that quickly, what Brett is saying is:
- In 2008, the S&P 500 fell by 50%.
- But investing only on Tuesdays (buying at the start of the day, selling at the end), and being uninvested on the other days of the week, would have avoided the market pain and made you money.
First, I took a look at the data and Brett’s numbers…