When experiencing disappointing returns, investors become eager to know when the market will bounce back. Economists and professional money managers may use many complicated calculations to make their forecasts. However, you might be surprised to learn about a few of the more unusual signals that some other investors could be watching.

Super Bowl Indicator
For the majority of the time since the first Super Bowl in 1967, a win by a team in the National Football Conference (NFC) has brought a good year for stocks and a win by a team in the American Football Conference (AFC) has meant a bad year for stocks.

What does the stock market have to do with the Super Bowl? Probably nothing. The connection could be that the NFC has won the Super Bowl more times than the AFC has - just as stocks have risen in more years since 1967 than they've fallen.

January Effect
Correct about 90% of the time since 1950, the January Effect has a somewhat stronger connection to stock behavior. The theory is that if stock prices rise for the month - or even the first week - of January, they will be up for the year as a whole. The reason lies in the fact that some investors sell stocks in December for tax purposes. Those investors are more likely to buy the same stocks back in January, the theory goes, if they expect stock prices to rise. The indicator seems to work best for stocks of smaller companies.

Hemline Theory
First popular in the 1940s, the Hemline Theory suggests that stock prices will rise when skirts are short (which happened in the 1920s and 1960s) and fall when skirts are long (as they did in the 1930s and 1940s). Coincidence? Probably so. But if miniskirts make a fashion comeback, it could make some investors optimistic.

Lipstick and Aspirin Indicators
Here are two other theories that are mostly just for fun. They suggest that you can tell where stocks are headed from certain things that people buy. According to the Lipstick Indicator, when women are concerned about the economy - making it more likely that stock prices could fall - they treat themselves to low-cost luxuries like lipstick. The more lipstick they buy, the worse things look for stocks. The Aspirin Indicator is based on a similar relationship. When people are worried about stocks and the economy, they have more headaches and tend to buy more aspirin. Lipstick sales were recently very strong in 2001 - a year when the economy was in a recession and stock prices fell sharply.

What's an investor to learn from these indicators? A summary of the predictions is in the box below - see if they fit with what you know about the stock market versus the indicators this year!

What May Indicate an Up-Year for Stocks?