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Get started weekly: Should you try to time the market?

@EQUITYMATES|23 August, 2022

At Equity Mates Media, we’ve got two podcasts designed to help new investors and those who are yet to get started. Here’s what we’re chatting about this week…

Get Started Investing this week looks at why Investing at the worst time … is still better than not investing at all. 
We all know investing has its risks, and many of those have played out this year, but today Bryce & Alec explain why we should still invest despite these risks.

[Listen to the episode here]

You’re In Good Company chats about the latest inflation numbers from the US and its flat from June to July… Then Maddy had a work colleague ask her if we were actually in a ‘Dead Cat Bounce’ which led to a LOT of Googling! So Soph and Maddy discuss what a dead cat bounce is.

[Listen to the episode here]


Hey this got us thinking…

As is custom, we went to the trusted Equity Mates Instagram community this week to find out whether you’ve tried to ‘time the market’ (basically trying to predict what the market is going to do in the short term). We do a poll on Monday every week, so check in on our insta to get involved. Here’s the data from this week…

Have you ever tried to time the market when investing?

  • 64% said yes
  • 36% said no

If yes, how did it turn out for you? (Here are some of the best responses from insta)

  • “Impossible to pick the bottom”
  • “So far so good. Not massive gains. I try and ‘buy the dip’.”
  • “Very well… until now”
  • “OK, not the short term turnaround I was hoping for but after 6/7 years it was sold for a profit.”
  • “I learnt you can’t do it.”
  • “Eh, not as good as DCAing on the way down.”
  • “Pretty good actually. Fluke though.”

Do you think there’s ever a ‘bad time’ to invest?

  • 21% said yes, like now
  • 58% said no, dollar cost average all the way
  • 21% said they weren’t sure

What is your investment time horizon?

  • 5% said 0-1 year
  • 10% said 1-4 years
  • 20% said 4-9 years
  • 65% said 9 or more years

That got us reading…

“Trying to pick the bottom will only give you a smelly finger…”

There are all sorts of quotes to discourage us from attempting to time the market when investing. But it is a little tempting isn’t it? This article looks at whether market timing actually works…
[Read the article here]


And a beginner’s tip for the week…

It might be somewhat unrelated to the theme of this email… but it’s guaranteed to help you on your investing journey.

This article explains some adjustments that you can make to protect your portfolio from further market turbulence.
[Read the article here]


This is an excerpt from our Get Started Investing Newsletter email. Once a week, for those , we’re featuring some of the most interesting content we’ve come across in this weekly email. No spam, we guarantee.

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