We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the economy and the stock market are not one and the same.

The performance of the economy under a president is open to wide interpretation. The performance of the stock market, on the other hand, is pretty hard to explain but at least we can measure it. And what do we find when we do?

Allan Sloan got curious. He’s Fortune magazine’s senior editor-at-large.

There is an argument that stock market returns — our investments — might fare better under a Republican president.

“The logic goes — and it makes sense as logic —that Republicans are more pro-business, that they are into lower taxes,” Sloan says. “Therefore, Republicans will have more investor-friendly programs, and therefore, investors will do invariably better under Republican presidents than Democratic presidents.”

But research shows that this assumption might not hold much weight.

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