So with the markets running HOT particularly on Wall Street and the ASX, it brings up the age-old investing question:

Should I get in the market or should I get out?

Market Strategist Daniel Weiner has some pretty handy numbers for any investor who has stayed in the market over the last 13 years.

“Look at the S&P 500, since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) there’s been almost 300 record highs, that’s almost one a week.

So if you’re invested for that whole period you’ve basically got that probability that every so often, granted there’ll be a few in a row, we are going to experience a new record high” according to Weiner.

Investors are highly aware of the emotion that comes with watching your money grow and fall.

But if you can remain calm for long enough, Weiner says there’s one key to returns.

“It just comes down to the length of time you’re willing to invest in the market.” 

300 record highs over that time, almost one a WEEK. Looks pretty good on paper. Obviously you have to manage the bumps along the way but goodness me.

Okay, so let’s expand our time horizon. Let’s work across a 30-year time frame of being invested in the market.

“Over a 30-year window if you were to invest at any random point in time in the S&P 500, versus the particular point in time where it’s a new record high…your 3 and 5 year returns and your 1 year returns will actually be higher investing at the point in time of a new record high” Weiner added.

Now that is surprising. Your returns, on average, are higher if you invested at the point of a record high. And just stay in the market.

So why would this happen?

Weiner points to a trend “so it might be counterintuitive for some people to see this.

But it could come down to a fact that record highs tend to beget record highs, because we tend to be in a bull run” 

So none of this is investing advice, each to their own, we’re all different people.

But these numbers suggest that “time in the market beats timing the market…”

I didn’t come up with that, but it might be a handy way to reduce the stress.