Financial researchers have found various violations of market efficiency that are referred to as “calendar effects.” Using the S&P 500 1950 to 2018 Daily.xlsx file from the official Web site (www.cengage.com/finance/mayes/analysis/9e):

a. Create a pivot table and pivot chart that shows the average percentage change by day of the week for the entire period. Are the average returns different for each day? If so, which are the best and worst days of the week?

b. Now add the Decade field to the Row area of your pivot table. Are there any decades in which Mondays had a positive average return?

c. Change your pivot table to show the average daily return by month for the entire period. What is the best month on average? Which is the worst? Does this vary by decade?

d. What was the best decade in which to invest based on average daily return? What was the sum of the daily returns in each decade (ignore compounding of returns)? Add a Pivot Chart that shows the results.