“Sell in May and go away, don’t come back ’til St Leger Day” is a saying as old as the hills — or at least as old as when senior traders abandoned London en masse for Ascot, Wimbledon, Henley and Lord’s.

Volumes fell and prices weakened during this time, not picking up until after the second week in September. But few live like that nowadays and what was then a prolonged holiday would today more likely be an unpaid sabbatical — and considerably rarer at that!