People loooove trying to time the stock market. How do they do it? Mostly vibes.
But zooming out, when is truly the best time to invest? Let’s see what nearly 100 years of data says:
Average stock market performance by month
Rank | Month | Return |
|---|---|---|
1 | July | 1.71% |
2 | April | 1.38% |
3 | December | 1.31% |
4 | January | 1.16% |
5 | November | 0.97% |
6 | June | 0.76% |
7 | August | 0.63% |
8 | March | 0.57% |
9 | October | 0.52% |
10 | May | -0.11% |
11 | February | -0.14% |
12 | September | -1.17% |
Great, I’ll buy now, sell in Feb, buy in March…
Stop.
Zoom out again.
Instead of constantly trying to time the market and trade frequently (something that loses 70-90% of retail traders money), just buy and hold.
Okay have a nice weekend bye.
