The Seasonality of Gold - The Autumn Effect
22 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2012 Last revised: 24 May 2012
Date Written: May 13, 2012
Abstract
This paper studies recurring annual events potentially introducing seasonality into gold prices. We analyze gold returns for each month from 1980 to 2010 and find that September and November are the only months with positive and statistically significant gold price changes. This “autumn effect” holds unconditionally and conditional on several risk factors. We argue that the anomaly can be explained with hedging demand by investors in anticipation of the “Halloween effect” in the stock market, wedding season gold jewelery demand in India and negative investor sentiment due to shorter daylight time. The autumn effect can also be characterized by a higher unconditional and conditional volatility than in other seasons.
Keywords: seasonality, anomaly, gold, silver, hedge, safe haven
JEL Classification: C32, G10, G11, G14, G15, L70
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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