The stock market's Santa Claus rally is just getting started — and tech stocks are your best bet for the near term, says one Wall Street investment chief

• The Santa Claus rally has just gotten underway and should last through Jan. 4, according to Doug Ramsey, the chief investment officer at the Leuthold Group.
• Ramsey says that, since 2000, the rally has generated an average gain of 0.96% for the S&P 500, far outpacing the normal seven-day average of 0.19%.

Those looking to best maximize the stock market's so-called Santa Claus rally should've waited until after Christmas, according to Doug Ramsey of the Leuthold Group.

In a recent client note, the firm's chief investment officer noted that the rally would start on Dec. 27 and run through Jan. 4. The period has historically spanned the last five trading days of a given year, as well as the first two of the new year.

Since 2000, the S&P 500's gain over the period has been 0.96%, far outpacing the normal seven-day average of 0.19%. And the Santa Claus rally has shown remarkable durability even after being labeled a trend in 1972, posting an average gain of 1.26% over the period, Ramsey found.

For investors looking to get a little more juice out of the Santa Claus rally, Ramsey recommended betting on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. He highlighted its market-beating 1.46% return since 2000, although acknowledged that the average is skewed by the bubble years of 2000 and 2001.

Check out the historical success of the Nasdaq's Santa Claus rally: