Year of the Ox, 2009... Is an Ox Year the same as a Bull Year??

In case anybody is wondering, the first day of the next Chinese New Year falls on January 26th 2009. The character (牛) for the ox is, unsurprisingly, the same as that for a bull.


The record for the Dow Industrials during the last century is not all that inspiring, with 5 winning years vs 4 losers, at an average gain for the year of a bit over 5%, but with a mile wide std dev of 21%, so expect something between -15% and +25%??! The next layer of astrology (elements) points to a slightly better outcome - the last Earth Ox (1949) saw a return of 12.8%. (Not statistically significant, methinks?!)

For the HSI, I only have 3 past Ox years to look at, for some reason... 1974: -64%, 1986: +21%, 1997(!): -17%

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