Michael P. Regan, Columnist

Dog Days Chase Bulls in August

There's no vacation from volatility if recent history is any guide.

July 25, 2016 at 7:44 PM UTC

Michael P. Regan is the global team leader for cryptocurrencies at Bloomberg as well as a former senior markets editor and former Americas team leader for Bloomberg's Markets Live blog. He has covered Wall Street for Bloomberg News as a columnist and editor since 2007. He previously worked for the Associated Press.

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Tom Lee, the co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, has been one of the more reliable and reassuring voices of optimism during the current bull market, rarely if ever finding a proverbial wall of worry that was too high to be climbed.

So naturally it caught our attention to hear that the strategist was nervous about what may happen in the stock market during August, a month that has tested the resolve of bulls almost like clockwork over the past few years. Don't worry, Lee fans, he hasn't turned into a bear yet: He's still expecting an 8 percent to 10 percent rise in the S&P 500 in the second half of the year.

However, no one who is long the market should expect to get through next month without having to reach for the Tums.

Really, anyone who has been paying attention for the last few years will have most likely already stockpiled plenty of Tums in anticipation of the volatility we've come to expect. As quant guru Andrew Lo put it last year (using the technical jargon): "August sucks."