Seasonality of the Stock Market: The Swiss Market Index case

The primary aim of this book is to investigate evidence of seasonal trends in the Swiss stock market since the beginning of the twenty first century, and comparing it with seasonality within the stock market in the United States of America within the same time period. To do this, I chose a market index representing the state of the stock market for each country; the Swiss Market Index representing the Swiss stock Market, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average representing the United States of America stock market. The findings from this book is very relevant in agreeing or disagreeing with the precepts of the Efficient Market Hypothesis and the Random Walk Hypothesis, since the presence of seasonal trends in a stock market is used as a valid evidence to counter the arguments of these hypothesis. However, this book is not focused on all seasonal trends but is particularly targeting the presence of the January effect and the Halloween effect in these indices because of their relevance and practicality in investments and the development of investment strategies such as the sell in May and go away strategy.