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How to invest during market highs

Betterment experts weigh in on how to override anxiety, and be invested when the market climbs.

By Betterment Editors

Published Jul. 25, 2024

How to invest during market highs Jul 25, 2024 8:29:52 PM Betterment experts weigh in on how to override anxiety, and be invested when the market climbs. While we invest for our own reasons, we get into the market to take advantage of potential price appreciation and income produced by financial assets. But anxiety can get the best of even the most eager investors. What if I buy when the market peaks, and then immediately declines? Sound familiar? As any investor knows, psychological aspects can cloud one’s judgment when it comes to money. We’re encouraged to minimize risk and maximize returns, whenever possible. So, a market that’s going up-up-up, can leave some investors feeling hesitant about paying premium prices—instead of opting for undervalued stocks, or lower price points. So how do we override the Fear of Purchasing at All-time Highs (or FOPAH, for short)? Is it best to dive in, or wait for a potential pullback? Our investment experts believe one of the best things you can do is face your fear, wading into the market. In practice, it can take a long time before that pullback comes, during which there may be further positive market returns. For instance, between 2012 and 2017, the S&P 500 did not experience a pullback greater than 12%. Oftentimes when a pullback does arrive, it’s not heralded as a positive outcome—but an ominous event, accompanied by scary headlines that spark new fears of further downturn. This can all lead to additional hesitancy around buying stocks. While there's no "perfect" time to invest, we can still be confident that choosing a diversified portfolio of investments is a smart way to help achieve long-term financial goals. To ease your fears, work out approximately how much time you’ll need to save up for your own goals. Long-term goals, like saving for college or a deposit on a house, can take time. And that’s a good thing! The longer your time horizon (the period of time you plan to keep your savings invested in the market), the more confident you can be that your money will grow by the point you want to withdraw it. Even if the market has already recently run up when you go to invest, a prolonged time horizon should help quell a pullback in the nearterm. Despite volatility, the stock market tends to trend upwards over longer periods. By maintaining a long-term perspective, you can position yourself to benefit from the market's long-term growth potential, which can outweigh short-term losses. Dating back to 1988, if you decided to invest on any given trading day, 65% of those days would have resulted in a positive investment return over the following month. The share of days with positive returns goes up as that trailing holding period extends. Historically, no matter when an investment was made between 1988 and 2009, the market was higher 100% the time just 15 years later. Short-term goals, like saving for a vacation or a home reno, have a shorter time horizon—meaning your money has less time to grow in the market. However, it's worth remembering that historically, investing at all-time highs has not resulted in lower future returns compared to investing on any other given day. After the S&P 500 reaches an all-time high, average returns tend to be slightly higher than during periods when the index has not soared so high. Practical steps to help ease your anxiety: Set up recurring deposits: When you commit to investing a fixed amount of money at set intervals over time, your losses could potentially be smaller if the market does dive in the near term. Plus, you will still have cash ready to buy at lower prices. While this comes with the risk of later buying at higher prices, it can help override the emotional pressure of trying to time the market. Diversify: Consider adding other asset classes, regions, and company sizes in your portfolio (as we do at Betterment). Our automated portfolio rebalancing is designed to maintain your investment portfolio's target asset allocation over time. Betterment continuously monitors your portfolio to see if the current allocation deviates from your target allocation—due to market fluctuations or changes in the value of your investments. Our auto-adjust feature can also help right-size the risk level of your portfolio by reducing the share of the portfolio allocated to more volatile stocks, and increasing the share allocated to bonds as your time horizon shortens.

While we invest for our own reasons, we get into the market to take advantage of potential price appreciation and income produced by financial assets. But anxiety can get the best of even the most eager investors. What if I buy when the market peaks, and then immediately declines?

Sound familiar? As any investor knows, psychological aspects can cloud one’s judgment when it comes to money. We’re encouraged to minimize risk and maximize returns, whenever possible. So, a market that’s going up-up-up, can leave some investors feeling hesitant about paying premium prices—instead of opting for undervalued stocks, or lower price points.

So how do we override the Fear of Purchasing at All-time Highs (or FOPAH, for short)? Is it best to dive in, or wait for a potential pullback?

Our investment experts believe one of the best things you can do is face your fear, wading into the market. In practice, it can take a long time before that pullback comes, during which there may be further positive market returns. For instance, between 2012 and 2017, the S&P 500 did not experience a pullback greater than 12%.

INLINE ILLO Oftentimes when a pullback does arrive, it’s not heralded as a positive outcome—but an ominous event, accompanied by scary headlines that spark new fears of further downturn. This can all lead to additional hesitancy around buying stocks. While there's no "perfect" time to invest, we can still be confident that choosing a diversified portfolio of investments is a smart way to help achieve long-term financial goals.

To ease your fears, work out approximately how much time you’ll need to save up for your own goals.

Long-term goals, like saving for college or a deposit on a house, can take time. And that’s a good thing! The longer your time horizon (the period of time you plan to keep your savings invested in the market), the more confident you can be that your money will grow by the point you want to withdraw it. Even if the market has already recently run up when you go to invest, a prolonged time horizon should help quell a pullback in the nearterm.

Despite volatility, the stock market tends to trend upwards over longer periods. By maintaining a long-term perspective, you can position yourself to benefit from the market's long-term growth potential, which can outweigh short-term losses. Dating back to 1988, if you decided to invest on any given trading day, 65% of those days would have resulted in a positive investment return over the following month. The share of days with positive returns goes up as that trailing holding period extends. Historically, no matter when an investment was made between 1988 and 2009, the market was higher 100% the time just 15 years later.

Short-term goals, like saving for a vacation or a home reno, have a shorter time horizon—meaning your money has less time to grow in the market. However, it's worth remembering that historically, investing at all-time highs has not resulted in lower future returns compared to investing on any other given day. After the S&P 500 reaches an all-time high, average returns tend to be slightly higher than during periods when the index has not soared so high.

Practical steps to help ease your anxiety:

Set up recurring deposits: When you commit to investing a fixed amount of money at set intervals over time, your losses could potentially be smaller if the market does dive in the near term. Plus, you will still have cash ready to buy at lower prices. While this comes with the risk of later buying at higher prices, it can help override the emotional pressure of trying to time the market.
Diversify: Consider adding other asset classes, regions, and company sizes in your portfolio (as we do at Betterment). Our automated portfolio rebalancing is designed to maintain your investment portfolio's target asset allocation over time. Betterment continuously monitors your portfolio to see if the current allocation deviates from your target allocation—due to market fluctuations or changes in the value of your investments. Our auto-adjust feature can also help right-size the risk level of your portfolio by reducing the share of the portfolio allocated to more volatile stocks, and increasing the share allocated to bonds as your time horizon shortens.