RealMoney Pro

In my Sept. 18 column, I highlighted the old Wall Street adage "Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yom Kippur" as a reason why I had sold my remaining long positions in the Russell 2000 at the close of trading on Friday, Sept. 14. As you recall, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, began the following Sunday evening. Of course, there were other reasons for selling the RUT that Friday before Rosh Hashanah, not the least of which was the massive double top going back to May 2011 at 868.50. But the Jewish high holy days provided another good reason for me to pare back my positions to their lightest levels of the year (30% maximum exposure). Since that day's intraday high of 868.50, the RUT sold off almost 37 points to Wednesday's lows. That's a drop of 4.2% in eight sessions.

The S&P 500 fell a serious 44 points, or about 3%. Keep in mind that Wednesday evening marked the end of the Jewish holidays. Yom Kippur ended at sundown. So did you sell Rosh Hashanah and buy Yom Kippur? I was amused to hear the traders on Fast Money this morning searching for reasons for today's rally. Someone suggested "Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yom Kippur" as a possible reason and everyone laughed, as if he were joking. It wasn't a joke. Wednesday morning, I re-established some of those Russell 2000 positions that I had previously sold. I bought them back with the RUT at 832.53, about 4% lower than where I had sold them on Sept. 14. That wasn't a joke either....321 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.