A brief history and recent developments in day‐of‐the‐week effect literature

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief review of pre‐2003 work on the weekend effect and then discuss how recent selected work has extended our knowledge of the subject.

Design/methodology/approach

Results of recently published studies are organized and summarized by research question and outcomes.

Findings

While early literature found a fairly consistent weekend effect, with positive returns on Fridays and negative returns on Mondays, more recent research shows the effect moving to other days, reversing or vanishing.

Research limitations/implications

While it is difficult to compare studies made across different time periods, the direction of present research gives insight into how markets are adjusting to the weekend effect anomaly.

Practical implications

Investors may find it very hard to adequately identify a trading strategy based on current research.

Originality/value

This work conveniently synthesizes and presents current research findings from a variety of published sources.

Citation

Philpot, J. and Peterson, C.A. (2011), "A brief history and recent developments in day‐of‐the‐week effect literature", Managerial Finance, Vol. 37 No. 9, pp. 808-816. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074351111153203