No One Can Time the Markets

“In the financial markets, hindsight is forever 20/20, but foresight is legally blind. And thus, for most investors, market timing is a practical and emotional impossibility.” - Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

Even the most sophisticated of investors will tell you that it is virtually impossible to accurately predict the market’s short-term moves. In fact, mistiming can be disastrous to investment returns. Investment power comes from being invested over the long term.  

Not being invested (strategy #5 in the chart below), and simply leaving money in cash, yields by far the worst ending wealth of any investment option. Even investing your money on the worst days of the market (strategy #4) is still more favorable than not investing at all.