How the stock market has performed on each day of the week so far in 2026
u/RussFaigen ·
Reddit — r/wallstreetbets
· April 16, 2026 at 13:51
· ⬆ 337 pts
· 💬 80 comments
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AI Summary
Summary
The post presents a fictional, statistically impossible study of daily annualized returns for the S&P 500 in 2026, showing extreme gains on Monday/Wednesday and extreme losses on Thursday/Friday.
The author's thesis is that a strong, repeated daily pattern exists, driven by investor behavior (buying early in the week, selling later), and proposes building a trading strategy around it.
Quality assessment: Noise/Satire. The returns are mathematically nonsensical (e.g., -113.4%), and the "data" is clearly fabricated for humor or engagement.
Score337
Comments80
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I found a study this morning that reviewed the annualized returns per day for the S&P 500 in 2026 and the numbers were pretty comical:
* Monday: +91.1%
* Tuesday: +3.2%
* Wednesday: +76.1%
* Thursday: -113.4%
* Friday: -46.4%
So what does this all mean to me?! Investors love to buy in on Monday, sell off on Tuesday, buy back in on Wednesday and sell of the rest of the week, with Thursday by far being the largest selloff day.
The big question that I have for you all, how can we build a strategy around this knowledge?
The author presents a fictional pattern of extreme daily S&P 500 returns for 2026. If such a pattern were to manifest, one could theoretically buy at weekly lows (Friday/Thursday close) and sell at weekly highs (Monday/Wednesday close). The post suggests a calendar-based, intraweek momentum strategy, but the underlying data is not real. The core "data" is fabricated. Real-world day-of-week effects are minuscule and unreliable. Publicizing a perceived pattern can lead to its immediate arbitrage away, as noted in the comments.