By Veterans’ Day Trading When Bond Market Is Closed
Before I get into the stats all of us at Stock Trader’s Almanac would like to
express our heartfelt thanks to all the Veterans out there and to all the
families of Vets past and present for their service.
The picture above courtesy of Cousin Gary Hirsch is of his
father Harold – my uncle, Yale’s older brother – in WWII sitting on a very cool
motorcycle, likely a Harley WLA with what looks like his M1 Garand rifle
leaning against it. Yale served stateside in WWII, but Harold served in Europe
and was part of Operation Overlord on D-Day in the second mechanized wave on Omaha
beach. He then marched across France to Germany as part Patton’s army under the
highest ranking Jewish General Maurice Rose. Among other battles, Harold fought
in the Battle of the Bulge.
I also want to give a shout out to our own resident veteran,
my business partner, Director of Research and all around good guy, Christopher Mistal.
Chris is a U.S. Navy Veteran. He served from 1994-2000 as an Electrician’s Mate
in the engineering department of two nuclear powered submarines.
Okay, now for the stats. Going back to 1954 there have been
47 Veterans’ Days that fell on a weekday when the equity markets where open and
the bond market was closed. Prior to 1954 the stock market used to close for
Veterans’ Day as well. As you can see in the table here stock trading on this
day when bonds were not trading had a slightly bullish bias from 1954-2020, up
about two-thirds of the time across the board with average gains around 0.2%.
But since 1988 the record has been less bullish around 50/50. DJIA is the
weakest down 12 of 23 with a small average loss of -0.15%. S&P is up 12 of 23
but with an average loss of -0.1%. NASDAQ fares a tad better up 13 of 23 with
an average gain of 0.07%.
Next to a halftrack, one of the vehicles he rode in.
In one of the godforsaken places where he trained.
With his wife my Aunt Bertha probably around the time they got married.
