Are you ready for a spring correction?

After a strong run in equity markets, with the FTSE soaring through 6,100 in the first month of 2013, could history repeat itself via a pullback or even a full-blown correction in the spring months?

The past three years have all seen FTSE 100 sell-offs in the spring as stocks pulled back after strong starts to the year. The 5% gain seen in the first two months of 2012 was swiftly erased by big falls in the following three months, the only months in the year to post negative returns, with the index falling some 6.8% in May alone. The trend was less dramatic in 2011 but the FTSE again suffered in spring, stocks selling off in earnest from May onwards, the index having stood some 3% higher on the year by the end of April. In 2010, meanwhile, losses posted in April (2.02%), May (6...