By Jeff Kleintop, TheStreet

It has been a textbook year. That is, if your textbook is the Stock Trader's Almanac. The old stock market chestnut "sell in May and go away" proved to be good advice this year. But that was not the only adage of Wall Street traders that worked in 2011 -- they all worked.

This has been the year of the stock market cliché in that all of the time-worn axioms based on the calendar actually were worth following this year:

The "January effect" -- the market tends to rise in January, attributed to individual investors putting money to work after taking tax losses in December -- worked this year as the S&P 500 ($INX) posted a 2.3% gain.

The "January barometer" -- stock gains in January often lead to a gain for the year -- and the overlapping "first five days" indicator -- stocks rising during the first five days of the year indicate a high probability of a gain for the year -- have both proved accurate so far.

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"Sell in May and go away" -- suggests investors sell and avoid summer -- worked, with stocks peaking for the year on April 29.

October, the "bear killer" month -- stock market downturns famously end and reverse in -- ended the 19% peak-to-trough stock market decline, with stocks bottoming for the year on Oct. 3.

If this "year of the market axiom" pattern continues, what comes next? Perhaps a Santa Claus rally is in store for December. Markets must still move past the uncertainty of a November that includes key policy events:

• Government transitions in Europe
• Action by Congress to avoid a government shutdown 
• The supercommittee's proposals to find $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction measures

But then a year-end Santa Claus rally may cap off a volatile year of modest single-digit returns. What may be the trigger for such a textbook year-end rise in the market? 

• Investor sentiment rebounds as Europe takes long-overdue actions to avoid a financial crisis.
• The job market improves, as foreshadowed by the recent decline in initial jobless claims below 400,000 in recent weeks.
  
• The holiday shopping season surprises markets by exceeding retail sales estimates, as it did last year.

This textbook pattern of calendar-driven performance by the stock market may mean that the best year-end strategy is to invest by the book.