Stocks This Week: A NASDAQ September Strategy

September has been the weakest month of the year. From 1885, the DJIA has been up in 47.4% of Septembers. The month has tended to be down despite the performance in August. The month has also been down in years ending in 3 and in pre-election years. Technology has been especially weak in September. The XLK
XLK
technology index has been up 45.8% of the time for a loss of 2.6%. This month has been the weakest for the NASDAQ
NDAQ
Composite over the last 43 years, the only month with a negative return.

Here is a September strategy for the NASDAQ 100. The 100 stocks are ranked for relative strength and for cycles. Rather than attempting to forecast the NASDAQ’s direction, the top five rated stocks are bought and the five bottom-ranked stocks are sold short.