Some Interesting Commentary

I found the following commentary from the stockmarketalmanac.com site very interesting. It seems that the most important to watch for are the December lows not how the markets perform in January.

“When the Dow closes below its December closing low in the first quarter, it is frequently an excellent warning sign. Jeffrey D. Saut, Managing Director of Research, and Chief Investment Strategist at Raymond James, brought this to our attention a few years ago. The December Low Indicator was originated by Lucien Hooper, a Forbes columnist and Wall Street analyst back in the 1970s. Hooper dismissed the importance of January and January’s first week as reliable indicators. He noted that the trend could be random or even manipulated during a holiday-shortened week. Instead, said Hooper, ‘Pay much more attention to the December low. If that low is violated during the first quarter of the New Year, watch out!’
Thirteen of the 27 occurrences were followed by gains for the rest of the year – and twelve full-year gains – after the low for the year was reached. For perspective we’ve included the January Barometer readings for the selected years. Hooper’s ‘Watch Out’ warning was absolutely correct, though. All but one of the instances since 1952 experienced further declines, as the Dow fell an additional 10.5% on average when December’s low was breached in Q1.
Only three significant drops occurred (not shown) when December’s low was not breached in Q1 (1974, 1981 and 1987). Both indicators were wrong only three times and six years ended flat. If the December low is not crossed, turn to our January Barometer for guidance. It has been virtually perfect, right nearly 100% of these times (view the complete results at www.stocktradersalmanac.com).”