Stock Market up 5% for the year

Stock Market up 52% from the low this year

An investment made on the first of every month since March 1, would be up 15%

I hope you haven’t been sitting on the sidelines this year!

Many don’t/won’t realize, but almost exactly 6 months ago US Stocks reached a record high and now almost to the day 6 months later they are reaching new all time highs! All this in the wake of the fastest drop in history: down 34% in 32 days. And fastest recovery: back up 52% 5 months later.

The previous S&P 500 record of 3386 was reached on February 19, 2020, before it started its precipitous fall down 34% on March 23. This week on Tuesday August 18, 2020 (so 6 months to the day) the US Stock Market has again reached an all time high of 3390.

In fact stocks are now up almost 5% this year. That buy itself is a return ANY investor would welcome.

ALL THIS DURING:

Covid 19 pandemic shutdowns
Depression era unemployment rates
Nationwide protests, and
(and if you live in California) Record forest fires and rolling blackouts.

Who woulda thought?

Moral of the story:

Don’t try to time the market. You can’t. Nobody can.

Just buy it and stick with it. So if you could have timed the market bottom and invested on March 23, your investment would be up 52%. But this is dumb, because nobody can.

So instead, let’s say you simply just kept on investing at a constant rate (also known as dollar cost averaging). Six equal investments made on March 1, April 1, May 1, June 1, July 1 and August 1, would be up a combined 15%. Again a return hedge fund managers would be quite comfortable with.

Some More Insanity

Apple is the first company to reach a $2 trillion valuation!

Tesla is a $370 billion company. Giving them a similar market value of Ford, GM, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota all combined (~$376 billion).