Why It's Better to Stay Invested, Even When the Market Is Unpredictable
It can be tempting to try to time the market, and get out before the crashes and recessions, but there's a mountain of research that suggests it's much better for investors to fight that urge and stay invested.
In this clip fromIndustry Focus: Tech, Motley Fool analysts Dylan Lewis and David Kretzmanngo over some of that research and explain why it's so important to stay invested for years at a time, and not try to miss bad days or months. Also, they talk about the best thing an investor can do for their returns, and how investors should feel about buying into a bull market like this, where so many companies look a bit overvalued compared to their average prices.
A full transcript follows the video.
10 stocks we like better thanWal-MartWhen investing geniuses David and TomGardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter theyhave run for over a decade, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*
David and Tomjust revealed what they believe are theten best stocksfor investors to buy right now and Wal-Mart wasn't one of them! That's right -- theythink these 10 stocks are even better buys.
Click hereto learn about these picks!
*StockAdvisor returns as of April 3, 2017The author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned.
This video was recorded on April 21, 2017.
Dylan Lewis:I think a couple things that underpin why it'sbetter to stay invested,even with the unpredictability of the market. There's a ton ofvolatility out there. Since 1928 -- this is a stat that I love -- theS&P 500 has lost 20% or more in six years --1930, 1931,1937, 1974,2002, and 2008. Aside fromGreat Depression years, in the following year of each 20% drop, the market has roared back with 25% or more return. So,the good and bad tend to follow each other very closely.
If you look at things on anindividual basis, as well,JPMorganputs out this guide to retirement every year,it's kind of an overview of asset allocation,different strategies, and they also looked atthe impact of staying fully invested versus missing certain days in the market. Over 1996 to 2015, missing the 40 best days in the market takes your returnsnegative if you had been invested in the S&P 500, and six of the ten best days for the market during that period were within two weeks of the ten worst days. So,individually picking andlooking at these individual indicatorscan be really difficult, andoftentimes the market tends to flip very quickly. Again, getting to timing, it's reallydifficult to nail that down.
David Kretzmann:Yeah. If you'rehesitant to buy today, youhave to figure out, what would make you a buyer of stocks? Would it be after a 10% drop? A 15% drop? A 30% drop? What are you waiting for to be a net buyer of stocks? Andmaking that kind of timing decision is incredibly difficult. That'swhy you have great investors likeWarren Buffett and Peter Lynch who say, "Do not do market timing,it's probably the worst thing you can do for your future returns as an investor." Often,psychologically, when the market is down 8%, you might think, "Oh,I'm just going to wait until it's down a little bit more,I'm going to wait for it to recover a little bit," and you get into these mind games where you'rehurting your future returns,because making that timing decision of both when to buy and when to sell, it just raises the probability that you're going to mess up somewhere along the line. As you've outlined in a nice way, Dylan, the key is to be invested through the good and the bad times. I know later in the show, we'll talk about somedifferent ways that you can invest in a waythat you're still comfortable and you're sleeping well at night,which is what you should do.
But the best thing you can do as an investor, the main advantages you have, here at the Fool, we believe, first, in,investing in individual companies. So, you have to factor that in. You'renot necessarily buying an index fund, or buying a whole collection of companies. You'refocusing on individual businesses. As an individual investor, your main advantages are, you can try to find and invest in and hold the greatest businesses out there -- the Apples, theAlphabets, theFacebooks, theAmazons, those kinds ofcompanies -- and thenyou can also hold for a really long time. OnWall Street, the average holding period for a stock is now less than six months. Back in 1960, it was over eight years. The average holding period for a stock today is weeks or months. But,as an individual investor, you can say, "I'mjust going to tune out that short-term noise.I want to invest in great businesses.I don't care about what's going to happen over the next year or two, I'm more interested in, what isAmazon or Facebook or Apple going to look like in 10 or 15 years, notwhat they're going to look like in the next year."
So, as an investor, the best thing you can do is lengthen your holding period, or your time horizon. Our former Foolcolleague Morgan Housel has done someincredible research on this,looking back at historical S&P 500 data going back to 1870. He found, if you had held a stock for one year, basicallylooking at every incremental one-year periodgoing back to 1871,if you just held for one year,it's basically like flipping a coin. One year you will be up, one year you'll be down. It'sflipping a coin, basically gambling, if you're justtrying to predict where things are going to go where things are going to go over the next year. But if you lengthen that out to five years, 10 years, 20 years, the odds of you making money at the end of those longer holding periods increases each time. There's actually been no 20 year period that if you had bought and held theS&P 500 over 20 years whereyou lost money. That's after inflation. That includes the Great Depression, itincludes the Great Recession. Really, the message there is, the No. 1 best thing you can do as an investor toguarantee higher returns is to lengthen your time horizon.
Lewis:Youtalked about investing in individual companies.I think that's something that can get lost in the huge macro stories we see. Very often, will something that is a sweeping macro issue really impact a company likeFacebook? The fundamentals that underlie the businesses that you'reinvesting in probably aren't touched all that much by something like rising interest rates. Yes,it will at least be something that impacts of broad market, but they still have the user growth they have,they still have the base of advertisers that are happy to put stuff on their platform. So,you have to remember that you're investing in the individual business, and while it's scary that theremight be some rumors circulating aboutcataclysmic stuff going on in the market, thefundamentals of that business are really what's underpinning your investment.
Kretzmann:Definitely. Within theOdyssey IIportfolio inSupernovathat I head up with a team of a few other Fools, I will admit that we are having aharder time finding glaring bargains with individual companies right now. Stocks are, for the most part, more expensive than they typically are. Youget outside of your comfort level a little bit. But we're tasked every month withmanaging this real money portfolio,and we have to make a purchase every month. Theapproach we take there is justfocusing on the individual businesses. We'll build up positions in companies over time. I think at a time like this, you want to build positions in companies that you'll be comfortable adding to if they go on sale 20%, if they go down 20% to 40%. So,maybe that's Amazon, maybe it's Alphabet. Whatever it is,companies that you feel pretty confident will be around over the next 10-15 years,companies that are generating strong cash flow,maybe they pay a dividend,maybe you start with a small position and then say, "You know what?I would actually really be happy if I could buy this company for a 30% discount, because I don't care where it'll be in a year or two. I'm moreinterested in the next five to 10 years or more."
Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. David Kretzmann owns shares of GOOG, AMZN, and FB. Dylan Lewis owns shares of GOOGL, AAPL, and FB. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends GOOGL, GOOG, AMZN, AAPL, and FB. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.