Editor's Note: Jeffrey A. Hirsch is editor-in-chief of the Stock Trader's Almanac, which popularized the "sell in May" market strategy.
Choppy March markets tend to drive prices up early in the month and batter stocks at month end.
Julius Caesar failed to heed the famous warning to "beware the Ides of March" but investors would be served well if they did. Stock prices have a propensity to decline, sometimes rather precipitously, after mid-March.