Bloomberg Surveillance · Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Alicia Levine and her colleagues argue that attempting to time the market causes investors to miss significant rallies, leading to underperformance. She notes that the best month of the year historically follows the worst, and missing out on just the best month can lead to a 500 basis point underperformance over thirty years.
“One of the most important statistics is that the best month of the year always follows the worst month of the year, and so we show our clients in various ways, like you try to time the market. You're likely to miss that massive rally like we had yesterday because you were so fearful of what was going on.”
“From June and July, the favorites were underperforming, Tech was over. I mean essentially, if you go back thirty years and you missed the best month of the year, you're underperformed by five hundred bases on.”