Investments Blog

The Cost of Trying to Time the Market

Written by Ginnie Baker | Mar 18, 2020 5:00:00 AM

 

  • A hypothetical $1,000 turns into $121,353 from 1970 through March 17, 2020.
  • Miss the S&P 500’s five best days and the return dwindles to $77,056. Miss the 25 best days and that’s $26,989.
  • There’s no proven way to time the market—targeting the best days or moving to the sidelines to avoid the worst—so history argues for staying put through good times and bad.

Missing only a few days of strong returns can drastically impact overall performance.