Jon Quast

As Matt pointed out, that's not always practical, but let's assume you did.

You had $5,000 to invest for the year and you could invest it all in a single day.

And you picked the very best day of that year.

The day that the market was at its lowest point for the entire year.

Somehow you had a crystal ball.

You predicted that.

And let's just say that there's another person out there who is the worst possible trader possible.

They picked the top of the market for a single day of that year and invested all their money on that one.

Well, if you were the best, you wound up with $5.6 million.

If you were the worst, you still had 4.2 million.

So you picked the best day of the year for 40 some years.

You picked the worst day of the year for 40 some years.

So if you time things perfectly, you did about 10% better than if you just invested everything on January 1st.

And if you time things terribly, you did about 18% worse.

So I'd ask myself two questions here.

Am I the best?

If not, is that 10% upside worth the downside risk of trying to wait for that dip?

I don't think so.

I think it's better to get invested.

However, I think the hybrid approach that you're talking about, Matt, is still a really good idea.