The Ghost Month is coming

I’m not a superstition person, so I don’t believe ghost or something like that. But there are many people do believing it and believe or not, superstition may influence investing decisions. If you are Chinese or knowing the Chinese culture, you must know Feng Shui is big in the Chinese culture. I just learnt something interesting and thought to share with you.


Little bit embarrassing to acknowledge that this is the first time I heard there is a so-called “Ghost Month” per the Chinese Buddhism and Taoism. It is the 7th month each year per the Chinese Lunar Calendar, corresponding to August usually. For those who believe it, ghosts and spirits will roam around during the month and may cause bad luck for believers. It is said, people tend not to make any significant decisions during the month to avoid back luck. What I found is really interesting is that the stock markets are indeed doing poorly in average during August/September in Asia where Chinese people are popular. For example, in the past 9 years, the stock market’s index average return was all negative around -2 to -3% for Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore and Malaysia during the Ghost Month. Amazingly, the return in the following 3 months was all positive (3-8%). 

 Of course be clear that I’m not suggesting that this is a rocket science proving the causal relationship between the two. But at least I believe there might be some psychic influence for poor return from these markets in the summer. If you are thinking to put money into the Asian markets in the next few weeks, be aware this superstition theory! Maybe you want to hold off till the Ghost is gone.😏😏