Stockwatch: Counterintuitive tale of an investor with terrible timing

• Author: Proinsias O'Mahony
• Published date: 20 September 2022
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

Bilello did the maths on the "worst timer in the world", someone who invests only at market peaks. Our hypothetical investor, the appropriately-named Wally, inherits $130,000. Nervous, he invests $10,000 in August 1956, immediately before a peak from which stocks fall 21 per cent

Burned by the experience, he waits until December 1961 to invest another $10,000 — right before stocks swoon 29 per cent. This pattern is repeated endlessly over the next 60 years, with Wally only investing at 11 bull market tops between 1966 and 2020.

How did he do? Not bad – at the end of 2021, his $130,000 investment is worth...