A New Look at Calendar Anomalies: Multifractality and Day-of-the-Week Effect

Abstract

Stock markets can become inefficient due to calendar anomalies known as the day-of-the-week effect. Calendar anomalies are well known in the financial literature, but the phenomena remain to be explored in econophysics. This paper uses multifractal analysis to evaluate if the temporal dynamics of market returns also exhibit calendar anomalies such as day-of-the-week effects. We apply multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) to the daily returns of market indices worldwide for each day of the week. Our results indicate that distinct multifractal properties characterize individual days of the week. Monday returns tend to exhibit more persistent behavior and richer multifractal structures than other day-resolved returns. Shuffling the series reveals that multifractality arises from a broad probability density function and long-term correlations. The time-dependent multifractal analysis shows that the Monday returns’ multifractal spectra are much wider than those of other days. This behavior is especially persistent during financial crises. The presence of day-of-the-week effects in multifractal dynamics of market returns motivates further research on calendar anomalies for distinct market regimes.