August Option Expiration Day, DJIA & S&P 500 Down 7 of Last 8 By: Almanac Trader | August 15, 2018
This week is options expiration week and mid-August is usually better performing than the beginning and the end of the month. This strength is punctuated with a three-day string of bullish days running from today until Friday August 17. A bullish day is defined as a trading day in which the S&P 500 has risen greater than or equal to 60% of the time over the past 21 years. Unfortunately, this bullish cluster has not always resulted in full-week gains during option expiration nor does this daily bullish streak guarantee market gains on each day. DJIA and S&P 500 have declined on August option expiration day seven times in the last eight years and have suffered full-week losses in six of the last eight August expiration weeks.