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The seasonal gap by era: average half-year returns and the spread between them

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-03, from Does Sell in May and Go Away Work?.

as of table 3×6read in context →
The seasonal gap by era: average half-year returns and the spread between them — 3 rows by 6 columns, computed from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
eraseason_countavg_may_oct_pctavg_nov_apr_pctwinter_minus_summer_pctsummers_positive
All seasons 2005-2025213.886.062.1816
First half 2005-2014101.226.064.847
Second half 2015-2025116.36.06-0.249
Rows × columns
3 × 6
Computed
Completeness
No missing values
Source
US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence
Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats
JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for The seasonal gap by era: average half-year returns and the spread between them, derived from the stored result.
ColumnTypeRangeNotes
era text 3 distinct values
season_count number 10 to 21 count
avg_may_oct_pct number 1.22 to 6.3 percent
avg_nov_apr_pct number every row is 6.06 percent
winter_minus_summer_pct number -0.24 to 4.84 percent
summers_positive number 7 to 16

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.

the exact SQL behind every number
WITH monthly AS (
    SELECT toStartOfMonth(toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) AS month_start,
           argMax(close, window_start) AS month_close
    FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
    WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
      AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) >= toDate('2005-04-01')
      AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) <= toDate('2026-04-30')
      AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
           + toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
    GROUP BY month_start
),
pairs AS (
    SELECT toYear(apr_m.month_start) AS season_year,
           toFloat64(oct_m.month_close) / toFloat64(apr_m.month_close) - 1 AS may_oct,
           toFloat64(apr_next.month_close) / toFloat64(oct_m.month_close) - 1 AS nov_apr
    FROM monthly AS apr_m
    INNER JOIN monthly AS oct_m ON oct_m.month_start = addMonths(apr_m.month_start, 6)
    INNER JOIN monthly AS apr_next ON apr_next.month_start = addMonths(apr_m.month_start, 12)
    WHERE toMonth(apr_m.month_start) = 4
),
tagged AS (
    SELECT may_oct,
           nov_apr,
           arrayJoin(['All seasons 2005-2025',
                      if(season_year <= 2014, 'First half 2005-2014', 'Second half 2015-2025')]) AS era
    FROM pairs
)
SELECT era,
       count() AS season_count,
       round(100 * avg(may_oct), 2) AS avg_may_oct_pct,
       round(100 * avg(nov_apr), 2) AS avg_nov_apr_pct,
       round(100 * (avg(nov_apr) - avg(may_oct)), 2) AS winter_minus_summer_pct,
       countIf(may_oct > 0) AS summers_positive
FROM tagged
GROUP BY era
ORDER BY era

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