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Does Market Timing Work?

schwab.com

21–30 of 292 posts

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#21
post #13

They didn't discuss Peter Perfect's sister, Petra Perfect, who -- rather than just wait for the one bottom day for the year -- instead buys and sells repeatedly, throughout the year, at more local lows and highs. Is that also considered market timing?

At a guess they'd lose all their money in transaction costs.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#22

Which is why better late than never I am overpaying into pension and chucking that on a far/wide international index. My calcs say I won’t retire rich but I will still most likely have the money and beat inflation. And not spend it lol! The real issue for the average Jo seeking alpha is you often need to pay the house (your government!) for the privilege. In Australia you trigger capital gains tax when you sell. And…

The problem in Australia is that they still tax you if you rent your house to someone and then use the money to rent for yourself. So if you need to move or change house size you must sell and buy. However if you buy an investment house you can get tax deduction on the interest of the mortgage. They basically tax people with one house but give deductions to people with multiple houses.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#23
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The March 2020 drop was from the pandemic lockdowns. In that moment, nobody knew that was a buy signal. Nobody knew then when economic activity would recover, if the pandemic would pass in two weeks or several months or many years.

"nobody knew" doesn't mean nobody acted. The rational actors that act only on information "everybody knows" are usually late to the game

You’re correct and the parent comment is too.

Timing the market to some requires complete prescience.

To others it may not.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#24
post #21
post #13

They didn't discuss Peter Perfect's sister, Petra Perfect, who -- rather than just wait for the one bottom day for the year -- instead buys and sells repeatedly, throughout the year, at more local lows and highs. Is that also considered market timing?

At a guess they'd lose all their money in transaction costs.

Transaction cost is little O of most significant trading strategies, imho.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#25
The idea with any Ponzi scheme is to get in as early as possible and get out before the inevitable collapse. Though if it is your meta-governement propping up the Ponzi come hell or high water, not sure where you would get out to that would not be sucked into the collapse unless you are part of the 0.000001% that would potentially have an option to watch the world burn from a distance.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#26

Which is why better late than never I am overpaying into pension and chucking that on a far/wide international index. My calcs say I won’t retire rich but I will still most likely have the money and beat inflation. And not spend it lol! The real issue for the average Jo seeking alpha is you often need to pay the house (your government!) for the privilege. In Australia you trigger capital gains tax when you sell. And…

You are probably not finding alpha as a retail investor - probably just some form of beta.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#27
post #9

For people with the intellect to understand the economy it does. Just very few of those people

If this was true wouldn’t you have many more economists with multiple mullions just from market timing? Even if you can predict the market and you are correct it can stay irrational so i think this comment is completely incorrect

Yes, and they do work for fixed income hedge funds.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#28
post #13

They didn't discuss Peter Perfect's sister, Petra Perfect, who -- rather than just wait for the one bottom day for the year -- instead buys and sells repeatedly, throughout the year, at more local lows and highs. Is that also considered market timing?

How do you know that you’re currently at a local low/high?

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#29
post #8

Although when the s&p dropped 20% in a few days in March 2020 — that was clearly a buy signal. And when tech stocks dropped by 70-90% in Nov 2022. Those stocks are now up 2x/3x from bottom. Sure, long term it probably doesn’t work out to time the market but sometimes it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.

The difficult part was knowing where to sell so you could have money on the sidelines before the market dropped. Was it right when lockdowns started? In that case, you already lost a fair amount from the top.

I do believe that markets can be beat, but by definition, you need to be "smarter" than the average capital, where more than half of the capital in the market on a given day is controlled by somewhat sophisticated investors. I don't think it's worthwhile for a retail trader to try their hand unless they are putting considerable effort into developing their alpha and either have automation skills or exceptional discipline.

Re: Does Market Timing Work?

#30
While I agree with the general principle of the post, I am skeptical of the fact that schwab published it. If it was done third party research, I would trust it more.

(Internet has made me skeptical)

However, the only incentive I can think of schwab is to encourage people to invest ASAP they have cash so schwab can get that money in their system so they can charge fees/still services.

But that’s just normal business

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