“You Say That Timing Is a Mistake. I Say That It Is Absolutely Critical. The Market Cannot Do Its Core Job — Getting Prices Right — If Investors Don’t Engage in Market Timing.”

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:

“If you don’t get the question of whether market timing is required or not right, you can’t get anything right. That one is fundamental.”

This statement is correct as we have yet to see even one successful outcome when using market timing. Anyone that pushes timing schemes has not gotten anything right….as you say.

We agree that the question is fundamental.

We disagree re the reality.

You say that timing is a mistake. I say that it is absolutely critical. The market cannot do its core job — getting prices right — if investors don’t engage in market timing. When enough investors become persuaded that market timing is not required, the market becomes dysfunctional and eventually it collapses and we all pay a terrible price.

My best wishes to you and yours.

Rob