Follow the new moon 'for high returns on investments'

Looking for high returns on your investments? Follow the new moon, says a new study.

A team of 14 senior market analysts from across five major financial centres of Macquarie Securities scrutinised data from 32 leading indices over several decades and found that the two days on either side of the new month represent most of the positive returns on equity markets for the next four weeks.

“Using data since 1988 for a wide variety of indices, it is quite clear that a strong surge in returns can be seen leading into the turn of the month,” leading British newspaper The Times quoted their report as saying.

The analysts have dismissed the notion that the theory applies only to markets in Asia — a part of the world where belief in the lunar theory, especially in Hong Kong and Japan, is better established.

“The effect is not just an Asian effect, it happens globally. Of the 32 markets we examined, all showed higher-than-average returns around the turn of the month. And for many of the markets, the average return for the rest of the month was below, or close to zero,” the report said.

In their research, the analysts have pointed to two academic studies which found that returns around the new moon are nearly double that of the corresponding full moon phase.

Using MSCI index data from the same 32 equity bourses and tracking decades of data they found that “in many markets, a very clear increase in average returns can be seen leading into the lunar new month”.

The results, said the analysts, showed that without exception every market showed a very slight increase in the average return over the new moon period.