The Blues on the First Workday After a Long Holiday

We are all familiar with the Monday blues. But there is something much worse than Mondays — It is the first workday after a long holiday. What makes this day specially bad?

• There’s a lot of work to do – because tasks didn’t just miraculously accomplish themselves during the holidays.
• Long lines in banks and government offices. It’s permit and licensing season in the Philippines as well, so expect mayhem in queues everywhere.
• A lot more shoulda woulda coulda from people who just slept through the break and didn’t make any plans
• For those who actually made plans, a hoilday mood that will take longer to shift to work mood.
• Specifically for the Papal visit, a lot of people got drenched in the rain during the record breaking mass. They may be ill now. Those who are not ill will have more work to do, since the ill ones will call in sick.
• Specifically for the Papal visit, a lot of people were on their best behavior while the Pope was here. Your co-worker may suddenly unleash the nasty side that he’s been suppressing all week long.

What about the markets? Do they do well after a long break or did they also get the blues? — or since this is finance related — the reds?

Since the breaks that I was talking about were Philippines specific, let’s look at how the Philippine Stock Exchange index – PSEi (see PSEi historical quotes here) performed before and after the long breaks.

These are all CLOSE quotes btw – data taken from www.marketwatch.com

December 23 2014   7186.32

December 29 2014   7230.57 (up 0.62% after the long break)

January  5 2015         7276.63  (up 0.64% after the long break)

January 14 2015        7490.88 – the last trading day before the long break

January 19 2015        7485.32  (down 0.07% after the long break)

*PSE trading resumed on January 19, but work for most people resumed on January 20.

As of the writing of this post (January 20), the PSEi is slightly down from both January 19 and January 14.

Draw your own conclusions from these data, because I won’t. I don’t think there’s any to be made actually.

For more info on the PSE, go here.