How deep a dip has to be to pay for waiting calculator

The price of waiting to invest.

Interactive: how deep a dip has to be to pay for waitingEasy

Months you wait Assumed market drift % p.a. Cash rate % p.a.

Market drift while waiting: —
Earned on cash: —
Fall needed to break even: —
Highest entry that still wins: —
Verdict: —
Health warning: —

Note how much the cash rate changes the answer — waiting cost a great deal at zero rates and is far cheaper at 4%. The health warning is the real finding: studies of waiting strategies fail mostly because the investor does not buy at the dip either, having by then found a reason the fall will continue. Compare with the lump-sum versus phasing-in calculator, which prices the same decision from the other side.

The idea behind it

This calculator belongs to Behavioural Finance, where the mechanism it computes is explained step by step, with the formula, what each input means and where the simple model stops being right. Everything is computed in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.

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The same in full — six points, and why each one matters

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