Buy low, sell high…
It seems like a straightforward path to success. However, what if you get your timing wrong? Or, more concretely, what happens to your overall return if you’re sitting on the sidelines during, say, the best one or two days of the year?
To answer this question, Alan Hibbard, in-house analyst at GoldSilver, created this table. It includes the top five daily returns for gold in 2023.

The highest daily return was on October 13, when gold surged by 3.11% in a single day. And if you look at the top four days for gold, the cumulative return for those days totaled 11.63%. That means gold’s best four days in 2023 were enough to surpass gold’s entire year-to-date return (10.2%).
So, what does this tell us?
These findings reinforce the challenge of market timing. Aiming for optimal entry and exit points is not only difficult but can often be counterproductive. As seen with gold, missing key days can significantly impact an investor’s returns. If you were buying and selling throughout the year, and if you missed just these four days, you would have lost 1.29% while everyone else gained 10.2%.
While timing the market might be tempting, the cost of getting your timing wrong is huge. For most investors, a long-term buy and hold approach is the safest and most reliable plan.
Article courtesy of Brandon S, GoldSilver