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 during 2000–2006, which included the bear market of 2001 and the recovery that followed. The value of the investment dropped to $57,537 by September 2002 (trough date). If an investor remained invested in the market over the next three years, however, the ending value would be $91,488. If an investor exited the market at the bottom to invest in cash for a year and then re-entered, the ending value would be $74,403. An all-cash investment would have yielded only $60,252. Even though the continuous stock-market investment did not recover its initial value after three years, it still provided a higher ending value than the other two strategies. Investors are well advised to stick with a long-term approach to investing.
