One of the last major political catalysts this year is, of course, the U.S. midterm elections slated for the first week of November.
Since 1982, there has been an apparent performance split in the fourth quarter - the period before the election, and after the election.
Stocks have performed markedly better in the period from the start of Q4 to the day prior to the US midterm elections - with the S&P gaining an average of 5.7 percent, trading positively 100 percent of the time.
The period following the elections doesn't tend to fare quite as well - the S&P gains an average of just 2.7 percent, a positive trade just 66 percent of the time.