Tomorrow will be the first trading day (FTD) of May.

As explained in the 2013 edition of the Almanac, the market has a tendency to be strong on the FTD of a month. And this effect has been even more pronounced in recent years.

The May FTD has been the 4th weakest month FTD of the year: since 1984 the FTSE 100 Index has increased on average 0.07% on this day.

From 2000 the average return on the day has been even weaker at 0.01%, making it the 2nd weakest month FTD in the year.

The following chart shows the returns for every May FTD since 1984.