for my heirs & descendents
Buying Long Term
As I am now in my 80s, my perspective is obviously short term.
Financial advisers and other market pundits continuously spruik mantras like "Buy and Hold!" or "Time in the Market is More Important than Timing the Market". History has shown this to be technically correct but certainly not "more Important". Holding stocks for long periods makes life a lot easier for financial advisers to collect their commissions but investors lose a lot of profit potential along the way. There are numerous examples.
The US Dow Jones Index went sideways for 18 years in the 1970s! But there were plenty of profit opportunities in the highs and lows in the interim.
The Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Corona Virus Pandemic of 2020 provided substantial profit opportunities to "Buy the Bounce" if you quit the market early.
(Note the double top Sell warning leading up to the February 2020 crash}.
Sure, timing the market is tough and requires much psychological self awareness. Doing nothing however means lost opportunities. The ASX All Ordinaries Index fell nearly 36% in Feb / March 2020. The market fell 54% during the 2008 Financial Crisis.
The events are charted on separate scales for comparison purposes.
Buying the Bounce
One reliable longer term way to buy at the low point in a stock's price is to track the 15 Day Moving Average of the stock price. Again there are numerous examples.
The Trend is Your Friend
If you had bought ASX:ELS in late November / early December 2025 when major cross ups occurred, you would have more than doubled your investment by 20 Jan 2026 or about 129% in two months.
You might even consider buying more ELS, based on its rising trend, when there is a Close PVLow on 12 Jan 26 making even more profit.
