/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>4001234
Forgot my picture.

It shows how the global GDP (adjusted for inflation) keeps growing exponentially even through crisis. Crisis merely reduces the exponent slightly. It has barely any impact on ACTUAL growth. This is the reason economy can forever grow exponentially. Or at least until we know literally everything about the universe and have developed every technology possible so there is no growth possible anymore.

>>929769
>If you began dollar cost averaging into the S&P 500 in early 2000, today, 15 years later, you would only be up 30%. Thats awful. Horrible. And seeing as we're at an all time high, it wouldnt look good for you if you were going to start needing your money out anytime soon. I thought the whole point of index investing was you didnt have to try to time markets
That's one test case, and hardly a damning one. Even if your calculation is correct (which I strongly doubt given your post history), your conclusion is 100% wrong. Investment results can't be judged in the abstract, and calling an investment "awful" or "horrible" on ts own is simply retarded. All investments have to be judged by comparison to available alternatives, on a risk-adjusted basis. For all you know, 30% for that time period under those (artificial) facts, on a risk-adjusted basis, makes it the best investment available to a retail investor.

>Also, you guys say that it is impossible to know what markets will do in the future, but seem to have a lot riding on them always going up. Explain this too, please. Thanks
Global markets grow due to external factors that have nothing to do with the securities listed on those markets. Technology, population growth, and social and economic change all push markets in a positive direction, given sufficient time to smooth over the random walk.

Is it a foregone conclusion that these factors will always be positive? No, I guess not. We could have a Luddite revolution and smash all our computers, plus ISIS might take over and kick women out of the workforce, plus people might suddenly stop having sex and making new babies. But I'm betting that things will mostly stay the same.