The Cost Of Being Out Of The Market

7IM have sent us through an interesting slide which we felt we would share with you.

The illustration (which can be found here) shows the loss of return if you had missed the 5, 10, 20 or 40  best days returns from the FTSE 100 & the S&P 500 over the last 20 years.

Looking at the FTSE 100, fully invested (and ignoring costs) £10,000 would have grown to £33,000.  Had you been out of the market for the 20 best days your return would have been your investment and for 40 days you would have lost half of your money.

The story from the S&P 500 is much the same and the message clear, whilst it is tempting to try and time your exit and return to the equity markets, failure to do so at exactly the right time can be very costly!  Our advice remains to remain invested during times of turmoil as you never know when the rebound will happen.