The Importance of Staying Invested

Investors who attempt to time the market run the risk of missing periods of positive returns. The image illustrates the value of a $100,000 investment in the stock market from Jan. 2007 to Oct. 2013, which included the global financial crisis and the recovery that followed. The value of the investment dropped to $54,381 by Feb. 2009 (the trough date). If an investor remained invested in the stock market, the ending value would be $143,550. If the same investor exited the market at the bottom to invest in cash for a year and then reinvest in the market, the ending value would be $93,527. An all-cash investment would have yielded only $54,558. The continuous stock-market investment recovered its initial value over the next three years, and provided a higher ending value than the other two strategies. Investors are well advised to stick with a long-term approach to investing.