Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Time the Market, According to Humphrey Yang
Written by
J. Arky
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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Financial influencer Humphrey Yang has some advice for how to make your money grow, but spoiler alert: It’s not with timing the market.
Yang recently posted a video on TikTok entitled “The Importance of Consistent Investing Strategies,” where he described why “timing the market is a risky strategy and how consistent investing can lead to better financial outcomes.”
No Time Like the Present
For anyone waiting for the perfect circumstances to put their money into the market and grow, you’ll be waiting forever. Yang noted that a friend of his who was hesitant to invest in the S&P in October of 2024 waited on the slide lines, got cold feet and never put his money into the market. Because of that, a year later, Yang’s friend missed out on a 15% gain, according to Yang.
Time Is Money
Yang displayed a chart showing the last 20 years of investments from four different investors each putting about $2,000 into the market annually. When it came to Investor A, who had “perfect timing,” was able to buy $2,000 whenever the market hit the trough or the lowest point of the market that year. Investor B, who “invested immediately,” made a healthy amount of money as well, just not as much as A.
For Investor C, the one with “bad timing,” the one jumping into investing when the market peaked, still consistently made money over time — less than A and B, yet still saw growth. To Yang’s point, trying to time the market means you are outside of it all together, so getting in at any point is better than staying on the sidelines.
Cash Isn’t Always King
The last example Yang pointed out was Investor D, the one who kept all of his financial assets in cash, meaning they made significantly less than A, B and C. Yang stressed that unless you must absolutely keep your investment in cash, it’s always better to get into the market rather than try to time it for the perfect circumstances.
Staying invested in the market means that there are long-term gains over time. However, you have to start somewhere and even if circumstances are not ideal, starting to grow your money in those conditions is better than not getting into the market in the first place. Yang urged investors to take the leap into cultivating their wealth rather than trying to time the market for optimal conditions.
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