Buy And Hold Beats Just About Everything in The Markets

This Bloomberg post reiterates what my readers already know; investing in index funds works. Better yet, dollar cost averaging in diversified low-cost funds works fantastic too.

“It’s clear that having a diversified portfolio is probably the best way to navigate the investment climate and the best way to do that is owning the S&P 500 — full stop,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. “If you were to start this year by saying ‘everyone says there’s a recession coming so I’m going to invest defensively,’ you got punched in the nose.”

People were panicking like crazy this year, trying to time the market and the Fed interest rate hikes and pauses. Me? I just dollar cost investing in funds and picked a few ETFs and stocks. The old Wall Street saying, "the markets climb a wall of worry" is spot on. While everyone was worrying about a stock market crash, the market raced higher.

I see all the search results hitting my site asking if a "stock market crash" is coming. No doubt they're reading my "Is a Stock Market Crash Coming?" post.

Will a stock market crash come? Eventually.

Will it happen soon? Who knows, I certainly don't.

Do I worry about it? Nope, not at all.

I sleep better than ever before by following simple investing and time-tested investing principles that make sense.

It’s testament to what’s worked time and again — buying and holding the benchmark gauge, which is hovering near new highs. Left behind have been a litany of supposedly defensive measures that showed themselves to be something else amid 2023’s upward march: market timing in disguise.

If you want to give yourself a belated Christmas gift go and buy A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Read it from cover to cover and then do what it tells you to do. Make 2024 a different year for yourself and your loved ones.