How to invest in the quiet market months

Here's how to invest in the quiet market months, since “sell in May” hasn’t paid off this year.

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We've just had the St Leger Stakes – the final classic of the British flat-racing season – so if you believe in investment cliches, now should be an auspicious time to get back into the market. 

Sell in May and go away, come back on St Leger day,” runs the old saying, alluding to the long-standing belief that stocks tend to perform best in the winter months and less well in the summer. Supposedly, this pattern arose because market participants used to retreat to the country for leisure as spring and summer arrived so investing activity dried up. Whether this was really the case isn’t clear. In any case, there’s no reason why the trading habits of Victorian gentlemen should have any bearing on modern markets. Yet the idea that the summer is riskier persists and this adage has been making the rounds more often this year, reflecting a touch of nervousness in the market. 

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Cris Sholto Heaton

Cris Sholto Heaton is an investment analyst and writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2006 and was managing editor of the magazine between 2016 and 2018. He is especially interested in international investing, believing many investors still focus too much on their home markets and that it pays to take advantage of all the opportunities the world offers. He often writes about Asian equities, international income and global asset allocation.

Cris began his career in financial services consultancy at PwC and Lane Clark & Peacock, before an abrupt change of direction into oil, gas and energy at Petroleum Economist and Platts and subsequently into investment research and writing. In addition to his articles for MoneyWeek, he also works with a number of asset managers, consultancies and financial information providers.

He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Investment Management Certificate, as well as degrees in finance and mathematics. He has also studied acting, film-making and photography, and strongly suspects that an awareness of what makes a compelling story is just as important for understanding markets as any amount of qualifications.