One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In

by Peter Lynch

Here’s a telling scenario: If you put $100,000 in stocks on July 1, 1994, and stayed fully invested for five years, your $100,000 grew into $341,722. But if you were out of stocks for just thirty days over that stretch—the thirty days when stocks had their biggest gains—your $100,000 turned into a disappointing $153,792. By staying in the market, you more than doubled your reward.

No matter how we arrive at the latest financial conclusion, we always seem to be preparing ourselves for the last thing that’s happened, as opposed to what’s going to happen next. This “penultimate preparedness” is our way of making up for the fact that we didn’t see the last thing coming along in the first place.