One question I frequently get is why the overall stock market tends to go up over the longer term. Well, the simplest way for me to explain this is demand exceeds supply for much of the time – that is, the only way for the overall stock market to trend higher over time is for demand to continually outpace supply, causing share price increases. The opposite can happen from time-to-time for shorter periods of time but – over the longer-term -demand exceeds supply for much of the time.

Demand can be created by several factors including population growth, increased participation in the stock market (something that continues to grow over time with increased access, tools, knowledge, etc.), a sense of optimism towards the economy and the future, excitement generated by upward trends and the successes of others, continual innovation, earnings growth, economic growth, and other factors. So, as long as these factors and trends continue, then it is probably a good bet that the overall stock market will continue advancing over the longer-term. I frequently use various averages, indicators, and such to help determine periodic buy or sell points – you can read about some of them here: 1) for the buy side (scroll down to item 4 in the post): https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/a-structured-market-based-buying-strategy-for-investing-well-with-minimal-effort/, and 2) for the sell side (scroll down to item 2 in the post): https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/a-structured-market-based-selling-strategy-for-investing-well-with-minimal-effort/.

So, as a whole, the overall stock market tends to go up over the longer-term which means most investors will do much better by buying and remaining invested in the stock market rather than being sellers in the stock market except on the rarest of occasions. The primary exception to this would be for those who are approaching their financial goals of which taking a lower risk, more cautious approach would be warranted.

Please understand that declines in the stock market do happen on a periodic basis and some last longer than others. However, the stock market remains undefeated over the longer term and that is likely to continue.

For example, as you can see from the following post, even when stock markets go down substantially, their gains tend to far exceed their losses. This is another reason why staying invested even during stock market downturns can greatly benefit investors who tend to ride out the ups and downs: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-simple-math-showing-the-stock-markets-asymmetric-upside-143129927.html.

You can learn about all of my investing techniques via my “Invest Like a Pro in 10 Minutes a Day!” series of 4 books where you can learn the “end to end” process to investing. So, use any downtime you might have to your advantage by gaining this knowledge and learning these skills and techniques (https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and…/).

Also, you can read all about my stock market activities here: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/stock-market-activities.

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #success #finance #stocks #investing #stockmarket #bonds #bondmarket