This time, the recurring market trends were a bust. Most simply did not pan out.

Nonetheless, this actually is nothing novel. If you do a 25 year graphic representation on the major indices, you will observe that a few years just don’t happen as expected. But what you will also find out is that in the majority of years, they typically do.

What does that suggest for us going into 2010?

It means that 2009 was one of those uncommon years where seasonality did not work meaning that in 2010, seasonality will in all probability work again.

The opening cyclic trend will be upon us in just a couple of weeks, so let’s do a quick review.

The stock market has rather consistent and reliable cyclic trends. You should be aware of the most prominent recurring trends, given that this knowledge can stop you from being overly bullish at a recurring peak or too bearish at a seasonal low.

In a nutshell, the common trends favor a drop in early January (a.k.a. screw the jovial Christmas Leave It To Beavers who chased the run up in December), followed by a mid-January rally (now that we scared the newbies into selling for a loss, it’s time to get back to business).

By late March or early April the market often reaches a peak, followed by a shifting market in mid-April, possibly related to the April 15 tax deadline (this dangerous market time is divided between the haves and those who want to screw Uncle Sam).

The early summer months are frequently characterized by a midsummer rally, culminating in a market top in late July or early August (everybody is feeling good because its summer time. Let’s suck as many ‘it’s all good’ people into the market that we can). September and October are typically down months in the stock market (witness the 1929 Crash and the 1987 October decline), with the lows happening sometime in late October (now lets take all their money because ‘it’s all good’).

The trend into the end of the year is typically bullish, with the first two weeks in December characterized by a robust market. The Christmas holidays are normally gentle, with irregular and thin markets.

There are continually exceptions to these actual trends, but the general pattern is really dependable.

Print this article if you have to and stick it near your trading monitor. I think that because 2009 was a unusual bust for a good number of the recurring trends discussed above, 2010 will be an on year. One of the main mistakes amateur traders make is that they get sniped by superior fighters who know the seasonality trends.