As of 12/20/2024   Indus: 42,840 +498.02 +1.2%     Trans: 15,892 +32.54 +0.2%     Utils: 986 +14.76 +1.5%     Nasdaq: 19,573 +199.83 +1.0%     S&P 500: 5,931 +63.77 +1.1%	YTD  +13.7%   0.0%    +11.9%    +30.4%    +24.3%	Targets    Overview: 12/12/2024     44,200 or 41,750 by 01/01/2025   16,100 or 17,700 by 01/01/2025   1,050 or 975 by 01/01/2025   20,500 or 19,300 by 01/01/2025   6,100 or 5,775 by 01/01/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 12/5/24

As of 12/20/2024   Indus: 42,840 +498.02 +1.2%     Trans: 15,892 +32.54 +0.2%     Utils: 986 +14.76 +1.5%     Nasdaq: 19,573 +199.83 +1.0%     S&P 500: 5,931 +63.77 +1.1%	YTD  +13.7%   0.0%    +11.9%    +30.4%    +24.3%
Targets    Overview: 12/12/2024     44,200 or 41,750 by 01/01/2025   16,100 or 17,700 by 01/01/2025   1,050 or 975 by 01/01/2025   20,500 or 19,300 by 01/01/2025   6,100 or 5,775 by 01/01/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 12/5/24

Bulkowski on Best Days to Buy Stocks

This article discusses a method which counts the number of days in which price closed higher or lower from the prior close. Those days of the week with the fewest number of up closes represent buy days. Those with the most up closes are sell days.

• Summary
• Methodology
• Bull and Bear Markets
• 2000 to 2002 Bear Market
• 2002 to 2007 Bull Market
• 2007 to 2009 Bear Market
• 2009 to 2010 Bull Market
• See Also.

Best Buy Days: Summary

Based on the results, in a bear market, buy on Monday (best in 2007-2009) or Tuesday (best in 2000-2002) and sell on Thursday (best in both bear markets).

For a bull market, buy on Friday (best in both bull markets) and sell on Wednesday (best in both periods) or Thursday (best in 2009-2010).

Best Buy Days: Methodology

This research is one of the easiest to conduct. You can do it on a spreadsheet easily enough. I used my own program to begin counting the number of times a stock closed higher or lower each day of the week. For example, if Monday closed higher than Friday, I would add a 1 to Monday's "closing up" column. Then I would compare Tuesday's close to Monday's. If Tuesday's close was higher, I would add 1 to Tuesday's "closing up" total. If the following week Tuesday closed lower than the prior day, then I would add 1 to the "total count" for Tuesday. If I were to stop there, Tuesday would have 1 up count out of 2 samples, or 50%. I did this for each day of the week, for the market indexes over various time frames. The remainder of this document discusses the results.

Best Buy Days: Bull and Bear Markets

The above chart shows all available data on the various indexes, ending 3/26/2010. I show the Dow utilities in green, the Dow transports in red, Dow industrials in blue, Nasdaq composite in pink, and S&P 500 in yellow. Values above 50 means the day closed higher; below 50 means lower closes predominated.

For example, the utilities show Monday as having the most up days, at 54.3% of the total. The day with the fewest up closes over the Friday's close is Thursday, with only 48.6% closing higher.

The following table picks out the highlights. I consider the best day to buy is when the index closes lower that day. You can buy in at a cheaper price. Columns above 50 have more higher than lower closes. Those are the best days to sell near the close.

If you are a day trader, you might want to buy in at the market open and sell at the close on those days shown to post a higher close. For short sellers, do the reverse, sell at the open and cover at the close on those days more likely to post a lower close. That is just a general rule, of course, and market events will affect your strategy.

If you ignore the bull and bear market type, the best overall day to buy is Monday. To sell, chose Wednesday or Friday.

Best Buy Days: 2000 to 2002 Bear Market

The surprising thing about this chart is the Dow utilities showing a good run. They closed higher 57.9% of the time during the 2000 to 2002 bear market. The S&P 500 closed up the fewest number of times on Tuesday (41.1%). Also notice how many of the columns close below 50%. This is a bear market, after all, so lower closes should predominate (which they do, 17 to 25 or 68% of the time).

The following table shows the best buy and sell days.

As the table shows, Tuesday was the best buy day and Thursday was the best sell day, on average, for the major indexes.

Best Buy Days: 2002 to 2007 Bull Market

The above chart shows the bull market sandwiched between the two bear markets. Since this is a bull market, you would expect more columns to be above 50%. A count reveals the total to be 24 out of 25 or 96% showing more up closes.

The following table identifies the best buy and sell days for the period.

For this bull period, the best buy days are Friday's and the best sell days are Wednesday's

Best Buy Days: 2007 to 2009 Bear Market

The above chart shows the most recent bear market, from 2007 to 2009. Fifteen out of 25 columns, or 60%, were below 50%.

This bear market shows the best buy days as Monday's (the prior bear market was Tuesday's) and sell days as Thursday's (no change from the 2000 to 2002 bear market).

Best Buy Days: 2009 to 2010 Bull Market

The above chart shows the most recent bull market, measured from the end of the 2009 bear market. Since it's only been a year, not many samples exist. On this chart, 22 out of 25 columns, or 88%, show more up closes.

The following table identifies the best buy and sell days for the period.

The table shows that the best day to buy is Friday and sell on Wednesday or Thursday.

-- Thomas Bulkowski.

See Also

• Best buy months. Can buying at the end of the worst performing month and selling at the best performing be profitable?
• Best buy price. The best buy price is $20 or below.
• Tax loss selling. Which days of the month do stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds drop?
• Failures. Which months show the most failures?
• Seasonality. What are the best months to buy and sell stocks?
• Holidays. Does the market rise or fall before and after holidays?
• Failure rates. Chart patterns fail more often than before.
• Market cap. Chart patterns in small cap stocks outperform.

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