FTSE - So where is the support

For those who follow US stats.



The SPX gained 753 points from January 1995 through the end of 2004 (10 years). But, had you purchased the SPX the day before the last trading day of the month, and exited on the opening of the fifth trading day of the month (and you stayed out of the market the rest of the month), the gains were 820 points. That's right. Those six trading days, on a net basis, led to all the market gains. The remaining 14-16 trading days of the month led nowhere. Sixty-four percent of the trades were successful.
What about the Nasdaq? The gains hold here, too. The Nasdaq 100 has gained 1217 points over the past 10 years. But, buying and selling only over the six-day period showed gains of 1354 points



'from the 2005 Stock Trader's Almanac. According to sector seasonality studies done over a period of decades, January should be good for both the semiconductor and banking sectors. Over the period studied (sorry, it doesn't cite the exact period), the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX - 482.15) has gained an average of 8.2 percent in January. The PHLX KBW Banking Index (BKX - 104.36) has a strong positive seasonality stretching from January to May and has gained an average of 8.1 percent over that period. On the other side, the natural gas and utilities sectors have negative average returns. The AMEX Natural Gas Index (XNG - 397.54) has lost an average of 3.3 percent in January while the PHLX Utility Index (UTY - 428.00) has slipped an average of 2.4 percent between January and March"