EDITOR'S NOTE
The S&P 500 kicked off May with solid gains after a three-month winning streak, but according to a time-tested Wall Street adage, easy returns could be hard to come by going forward.
The old "sell in May and go away" saying calls for taking off risk from May to October, a period when the market is more prone to sell-offs historically. 
Data going back to 1928 shows that the May-October period has the lowest average and median returns of any six-month period of the year, with the S&P 500 up 66% of the time on an average return of 2.2%, according to Bank of America.
The market might see mediocre performance from here especially after a massive advance from November to April, when the S&P 500 gained 28%, the bank noted.
"This is a small number of observations, but May-October has lackluster average and median returns after a November-April rally of at least 20%," Stephen Suttmeier, technical research strategist at Bank of America, said in a note.
The S&P 500 closed Monday about 0.3% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 238.38 points. The Nasdaq Composite slid into the red with a loss of nearly 0.5%
Bets on the economic reopening led the market advance, especially retailers. Royal Caribbean rose more than 1%, while Chevron was up 2.4%. Gap rallied over 7%. Dillard's jumped 9.7%. TOP NEWS
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