Friday 13th is meant to be unlucky, so is it bad for the share market?
There's usually one or two Friday 13ths each year. In 2019 there's two, one today and one on 13 December.
You hear plenty of funny share market sayings when you listen to some commentary. "Sell in May and go away", "Santa rally" and so on.
I'm generally not a believer in those types of thought process, but you can imagine some people might actually decide to make a decision and it becomes a self-fulling prophecy.
So, what has happened today? At the time of writing the All Ordinaries (ASX: XJO) is slightly up. Nothing for the conspiracy theorists there.
On the last Friday 13th in July 2018, the All Ordinaries finished slightly higher.
Friday 13th April 2018 also showed an increase for the All Ordinaries.
Friday 13th October 2017? Another increase for the All Ordinaries.
What about Friday 13th January 2017? A decrease!
Assuming today ends with a gain, only one of the past five Friday 13ths saw a decrease, with four of the last four being increases.
It seems Friday 13th is actually a good day to own shares. Perhaps it can be chalked down to people betting against bad luck. Perhaps it could be because more people decide to put money to work just before the weekend – maybe Monday blues would show the market falls regularly on the first weekday of the week?
Foolish takeaway
I think the most likely explanation for Fridays being generally good is the one that makes shares such a good investment. On average shares steadily go up over the long-term thanks to rising profits, which is played out on the stock exchange day after day.
The red down days on the ASX are usually quite painful, but the rise of the share market is through grinding slowly higher and takes place across more days.
