With Markets At All-Time Highs, A First-Time Investor Hesitates. The Fear Of Buying At The Top Is Hard To Shake
A Reddit user recently opened up about a common fear many new investors face: buying into the stock market when prices are peaking. “I feel weird about starting investing when companies are in an all-time high,” wrote the poster, who said they’re ready to invest a lump sum this month but are second-guessing the timing.
Worrying About The Peak
The person, who isn’t currently invested outside of a 401(k), said they believe in the long-term potential of AI and tech companies. They’re not expecting massive short-term gains, but they do hope that “the current top companies with a combined market cap of 10T might be worth 2-3x more 20 years from now.”
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Their hesitation comes at a time when the markets continue to break records. On July 10, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed roughly 0.4% in a continuation of recent gains across major indexes. The S&P 500 inched up 0.3% to finish at a new record high of 6,280.46, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1% to mark its second consecutive all-time high. AI chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) closed slightly higher, ending the day just above a $4 trillion market cap, making it the first public company in history to surpass that milestone.
The post triggered many responses from Reddit’s r/stocks community, most urging the user to stop overthinking and just start investing.
“If you bought at the all time highs for each year, you wouldn’t be far from those who perfectly timed the bottoms,” one investor said, referencing data that shows time in the market typically beats trying to time the market.
Another pointed out that the market is almost always at a high. “Zoom out, the market is usually near or at ATH,” they wrote.
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Lump Sum Vs. Dollar-Cost Averaging
Plenty of commenters acknowledged the fear of losing money right after a big buy. While many recognized that lump sum investing performs better most of the time, others recommended a slower approach known as dollar-cost averaging.
“DCA isn't to get the most gains, it's to remove the possibility of buying a large sum and having it crash right after,” one person wrote. “It's like buying insurance.”
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