According to Random Walker a.k.a Noel Reyes, Interaksyon.com‘s stock market columnist, we should have bought stocks last week and sell this week. The Holy Week Effect.

RANDOM WALKER: The Holy Week effect?

Holy Week comes but once a year, marking a major religious festival in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. It also marks one of the longest religious holiday weekends in the country’s calendar, with the non-working holiday kicking off on Maundy Thursday and ending on Black Saturday in which most retail businesses cut their working hours and with a large proportion of the urban population going to the beach and mountain resorts. It is a dead period for the stock market, in other words.

The trading lull actually starts on Monday, as stock traders anticipate the long holiday weekend ahead and, for the most part, stay clear of the market. Amid this slow, lethargic market trading turnout, the overriding thought that goes through the minds of traders can be easily read: “This market isn’t going anywhere; I’ll just come back after the Holy Week.”

That only seems logical, for sure, as far as the individual trader is concerned. For the market as a whole, however, this general way of thinking would be illogical. It would be illogical since the long Holy Week holidays come once a year and, if the market were truly efficient, there would be no such Holy Week effect.

Read more here.