January wasn’t kind to stock investors in 7 of the last 10 years

livemint.com:

₹199 a share (50 shares make one contract) over the spot price for holding the Nifty in January. Even on the last day of the December futures contract— futures contracts expire on the last Thursday of a month—the premium between spot and futures was a huge 164 points.

This means traders and investors who purchased the Nifty January contract are highly bullish. This itself can cause markets to correct on the flimsiest of excuses.

“Markets have tended to correct in January on profit-booking for five consecutive years," said Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, MD, Valentis Advisors. “As we have had a strong market rally in November and December, chances of a profit-booking induced correction next month are quite high." Rohit Srivastava, founder, IndiaCharts, said the “hefty" Nifty premiums signal that the market could be close to making a short-term top.