Over the past 20 years, the S&P 500 has had about 5,000 trading days. Only 10 of those days determine half of your returns.
JP Morgan did a study: from 2004 to 2024, if you invested $10000 in the S&P 500 and did nothing, it would grow to $70,000.
But if you miss the 10 best days during those 20 years, $70,000 turns into $35,000—cut in half.
What if you miss the best 30 days? The annualized return drops from 10.5% to 1.4%, almost like just putting your money in a bank.
10 days out of 5,000 trading days. By missing just 0.2% of the time, you give up half your returns.
Even worse, 7 of those 10 days happen within two weeks after a market crash.
That means the most profitable days arrive precisely when you’re most panicked and most want to sell.
Once you run, you perfectly miss them.
That’s why timing the market is a game that’s destined to fail. You think you’re avoiding risk, but you’re actually avoiding returns.
Buying the S&P 500 and holding onto it isn’t because you’re lazy—it’s because nobody can know in advance which 10 days out of those 5,000 will be the ones that explode.
What you can do is be there every day.
$NVDAB $SPCX
JP Morgan did a study: from 2004 to 2024, if you invested $10000 in the S&P 500 and did nothing, it would grow to $70,000.
But if you miss the 10 best days during those 20 years, $70,000 turns into $35,000—cut in half.
What if you miss the best 30 days? The annualized return drops from 10.5% to 1.4%, almost like just putting your money in a bank.
10 days out of 5,000 trading days. By missing just 0.2% of the time, you give up half your returns.
Even worse, 7 of those 10 days happen within two weeks after a market crash.
That means the most profitable days arrive precisely when you’re most panicked and most want to sell.
Once you run, you perfectly miss them.
That’s why timing the market is a game that’s destined to fail. You think you’re avoiding risk, but you’re actually avoiding returns.
Buying the S&P 500 and holding onto it isn’t because you’re lazy—it’s because nobody can know in advance which 10 days out of those 5,000 will be the ones that explode.
What you can do is be there every day.
$NVDAB $SPCX