the same can be said of gold. if you pick gold anytime from 70-95 it loses out on stocks. Also, I don't see the big downward trend in 98, as we didn't peak until 2000 ;-)
The real takeaway is to not try and time the market. don't just buy all at once. if you continually invest over time you will have much less volatile returns, and continually investing over almost any period the stock market has higher returns than the other asset classes mentioned.
The real takeaway is to not try and time the market. don't just buy all at once. if you continually invest over time you will have much less volatile returns, and continually investing over almost any period the stock market has higher returns than the other asset classes mentioned.