ART CASHIN: America's Worst Tragedies And Stock Market Crashes Occurred During The Year Of The Snake

CNBC "Morituri te salutant"

Of all of the Chinese Zodiac years, the year of the snake has historically been the worst.

In his latest note, UBS's Art Cashin goes through some of the bad ones.

Will The January Effect Get Swallowed By The Snake? – The ever-alert Jim Brown, over at Option Investor, notes that the year of the snake is historically the least bullish of the twelve signs in the Asian zodiac. The prior snake (2001) saw a loss of 13.1% after losing 28% at one point. In the snake before that (1989), the S&P did manage a gain of 9.7%, while 1977 saw a loss of 17.5%. Rick Weissman of Gleacher and Company cited the rather spotty event record for past years of the snake. We saw things like 9/11 (2001), the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) and the stock market crash (1929). Super Bowl and January are on the bull's side, while the snake threatens on behalf of the bears.

A lot of years we wish we could forget.