The following 12 months would see the Oslo Børs mutual fund index delivering a cool 21 per cent total return, which, incidentally, is exactly twice its historical average of 10,5 per cent.
It is a sad fact of life that the investment community includes investors who have little interest in Norwegian equities. Let me add, then, that the S&P 500 provided a total return in excess of 14 per cent and the MSCI World Index just over 11 per cent in local currency.
“The old adage of selling in May and staying away certainly turned out to be a bad piece of investment advice for a whole lot of investors.”
While not all markets ended the past 12 months in black, you get my drift – the old adage of selling in May and staying away certainly turned out to be a bad piece of investment advice for a whole lot of investors.
Perfect hindsight? Not so much. You're probably aware that 12 months sum up to a full year. The expected 12 month return in the stock market is in fact independent of the starting month and please don't tell me this comes as a surprise.
Hence, if you're in for the long run, which we tend to recommend, probably to the astonishment of absolutely no one, you're better served by simply staying the course.
