Down Day – Selling Nothing Today? Check the Down Day List
Posted on: January 15, 2009 (24) Comments
Check this list for days that are particularly bad for stock sales. If you are having a bad day, chances are that you are not alone. To find out how much you earn on a normal workday take the average of five workdays (that don’t have any down days in them) and use that as your 100%. Estimate the expected income on a down day as the product of your 100% income (what you normally earn on a workday) and the ratio number behind the down day. (For example ratio for Jan 01 = 0.16, meaning that I will earn 16% of what I earn on a normal workday)
DOWN DAY LIST:
(Note: Not all months and days of the year are represented.)
Jan 01: 0.16 (hangovers)
Jan 02: 0.60 (more hangovers)
Jan 03: 0.7 (startup slowdown for the whole first week of the new year)
Jan 04: 0.86 (startup slowdown for the whole first week of the new year)
Jan 05: 0.76 (startup slowdown for the whole first week of the new year)
Jan 06: 0.84
Jan 07: 0.83 (Christmas Day for Orthodox Christians in Russia and about another 15 countries)
Jan 08: 0.88
Jan 09: 0.9
Jan 10: 0.95
Jan 11: 0.9
March 20: 0.9 (NCAA men’s college basketball tournament in US begins Thursday March 19 and runs through Sunday March 22)
March 21: 0.75
March 23: 0.6
March 24: 0.8 (the day after Easter. (day off in many countries.))
May 1: 0.95 (The first weekend in May is a big event in Britain. May 1st is also ‘Labour Day in most countries)
May 2: 0.90
May 3: 0.95 (Independence Day in Poland and Greenery day (Midori no hi) in Japan, part of the Golden week)
May 4: 0.85
May 28: 0.5 (Memorial Day (USA)? – last Monday in May (officially May 30)
Jul 2: 0.82
Jul 3: 0.8
Jul 4: 0.75 (Independence Day—USA)
Jul 5: 0.82
Jul 6: 0.84
Aug 21: 1.05
Aug 22: 1.05
Sep 3: 0.8
Sep 7: 0.85 (Labor Day in the USA)
Oct 3: 0.8 (Day of German unity)
Oct 4: 0,8
Oct 9: 1.1
Oct 10: 1.05
Oct 24: 1.05
Oct 25: 1.05
Nov 22: 0.85
Nov 26: 0.80 (National holiday in Japan,…what is it called and Thanksgiving Day)
Dec 17: 0.95
Dec 18: 0.95
Dec 19: 0.95
Dec 20: 0.9
Dec 21: 0.85
Dec 22: 0.6 (Revolution Day or something in Russia)
Dec 23: 0.36
Dec 24: 0.18 (Christmas Eve - The big thing in Europe)
Dec 25: 0.082 (Christmas Morning – The big thing in the USA)
Dec 26: 0.35 (Day off in most countries)
Dec 27: 0.5 (Day off in most countries)
Dec 28: 0.67
Dec 29: 0.8
Dec 30: 0.5
Dec 31: 0.35
Major Trends in Weekend Sales:
Fridays are 0.85 lower in average compared to working days.
Saturdays are 0.28 of working days
Sundays are 0.37 of working day
Normal workday: 100%
Send us a comment if there are any days that we have forgotten or you think you know the reason for a down day. These down days are based on my income alone and may not be completely accurate. If you think one of them is not a down day, then let me know.
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Very cool post Yuri. Interesting way to present daily data normalized against the standard work day. I wonder how revenue growth over the year might affect some of the calculations.
Late Nov is Thanksgiving in the US which may lead to some below average days towards the end of Dec.
Thanks again for sharing this data.
Sorry – I meant to say ‘end of Nov’ in my prior comment.
These figures match my own pretty closely (though my sales are a much smaller sample than yours of course!).
I always find it interesting that sales on a Sunday are greater than a Saturday since I imagine that more people work on a Saturday than Sunday, traditionally a rest day in Western cultures where most sales come from. I presume it’s because buyers from the east, Asia, Australiasia etc. are back at work Monday morning but our sales get recorded as weekend ones.
You can also see the dips in sales throughout the year if your portfolio has localised images – bank holidays in the UK, May day holidays in mainland Europe etc.
It would be interesting to look at peaks and troughs of sales during a typical working day too – you can see when Europe starts work, east coast USA wakes up, followed by the west a few hours later.
FotoVoyager: Very interesting. Do you know the dates of the Bank holidays in UK and May Day. The may day I presume must be the first of may, which is down by 0.95.
Holidays in every country of the world:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_holidays_by_country
I add holiday calendars for the main markets (North America, biggest European economies etc.) to my Google calendar so I can see the predictable dips coming.
I would imagine my folio is more susceptible to local holidays because most of my images are of locations and from the time of day they’re bought I think it’s reasonable to assume it’s the British buying images of London, Germans buying images of Berlin, east coast Americans buying images of New York etc. So when workers in these places are on holiday, my sales for those places take a well earned rest too!
Some of the down days do not seem to bee explainable by holidays. Put I still have to put in something. There are a lot of funky down days here in these months:
Re: November 23rd see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Thanksgiving_Day
I just Put in Thanksgiving Day. Thanks. Does anyone know of Nov 23: 0.80 (National holiday in Japan,…
Are speaking from experience or you are just guessing? You probably missed bunch of holidays in US. I guess slowdown would apply to any “long weekend”: MLK Day, President Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas
BTW. I am Polish and Polish independence day is November 11th: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Independence_Day while May 3rd is Constitution Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791
11th September!!! It is my birthday!!
Jan 19 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (USA)
Feb 12 Lincoln’s Day (USA)
Feb 16 Presidents’ Day (USA)
May 1 Labor Day (Germany)
Sep 7 Labor Day (USA)
Oct 12 Columbus Day (USA)
Nov 11 Veterans Day (USA)
Nov 26 Thanksgiving Day (USA) last Thursday in Nov.
Nov 27 Day after Thanksgiving (USA) many will take this day off
St. Patricks Day is pretty much a global event these days. Its on March 17th and March 18th can be written off due to a massive hangover!
An Interesting and helpful contribution as always, Yuri. I think for someone relying on microstock as full time income, this would be a fantastic planning calendar.
Henrik – Good call on Nov. 27, “Black Friday.” Not only is this considered the #1 shopping day of the year, it is also part of an extended weekend which begins with Thanksgiving and extends until the following Monday morning. Might be useful to know for non-US contributors.
November 23rd in Japan is called: Kinrō kansha no hi and is the Japanese Labor Thanksgiving, used to be the imperial harvest festival.
You may also consider that May 4 is Greenery day (Midori no hi) in Japan, part of the Golden week – a week with several holidays in Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan)
Greetings.
May 1st it’s Labour Day in Romania, too
December 1st is Romania’s National Day
December 22 is Revolution Day (or something, don’t know the exact translation, also, don’t know if it’s a day off. No, it’s a working day.)
December 25th AND 26th – Christmas, 2 days off
Easter – 2 days off, also
Another 2 days off for each religious cult recognised in Romania (sorry, don’t know the exact days).
I see lots of Shutterstock images in many many magazines here in Romania and from other agencies, too.
Thank you Henrik! Very clear and detailed
Thank you Paul! Added a lot from your post!
There are a lot of days on the list for which I don’t have any information, so if you can think of why it is that these days are down days, then please put a line down about it.
Best Yuri
Sorry to say, but in Russia we have no days off around December 22, and our Revolution Day is on November 7 (and anyway we don’t celebrate it anymore).
Here in Russia we have:
Jan 1 – hangovers as everybody
Jan 7 – Orthodox Christmas
(actually the overwhelming majority of Russians have days off from Dec 31 till Jan 10 inclusive)
Feb 23 – Motherland Defender’s Day
March 8 – Women’s Day
May 1 – Spring and Labour Day
May 9 – Victory Day (refers to World War 2)
Jun 12 – Day of Russia
Nov 4 – I’m not sure how to say it in English, but something like “Nation Unity Day”
I think that’s all
Yuri, I need some help. I don’t know what to say to all of the people who absolutely hate me because I submit to microstock. I tell them that I submit to micro because I enjoy it and I tend to earn good money. What would you say to them? It’s getting to be a problem.
IMHO the reason Sunday is better is because of the difference in time zones – eg – it’s Monday in Australia while it’s still Sunday in the US. Probably this explains why Friday is usually lower too.
A very bad day today for me in all the sites. It’s only for me or it’s a day to add in the down day list?
interesting – 22th December is no any holiday in Russia )) But many people starting to prepare to “semi-holidays, whchi starting from Christmas till 13th January (“Old” New Year day in Russia).
I think if you include every country, then you have covered every day on the calendar, but there are really countries that have the purchasing power, and are really the ones to focus on. But it is nice to know, after watching the forums on some stock sites, that there is a trend that hits even the top earners. Thanks Yuri for the information, it makes me feel more normal
-Sandi
So much for down days – what about up days? Some days I sell way more than average – is this just through luck or should I be reading something into it?