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A Note on the Suboptimality of Dollar-Cost Averaging as an Investment Policy

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  • Constantinides, George M.

Abstract

The widespread notion that dollar-cost averaging can help an investor minimize the risk of investing all of one's capital in the market at an inappropriate time is aptly stated by Malkiel [4, p. 242]:Periodic investments of equal dollar amounts in common stocks can substantially reduce (but not avoid) the risks of equity investment by insuring that the entire portfolio of stocks will not be purchased at temporarily inflated prices. The investor who makes equal dollar investments will buy fewer shares when prices are high and more shares when prices are low.

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  • Constantinides, George M., 1979. "A Note on the Suboptimality of Dollar-Cost Averaging as an Investment Policy," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 443-450, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:14:y:1979:i:02:p:443-450_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Leggio, Karyl B. & Lien, Donald, 2001. "Does loss aversion explain dollar-cost averaging?," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-4), pages 117-127.
    2. Jezek, M., 2009. "Passive Investors, Active Traders and Strategic Delegation of Price Discovery," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0951, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. Kapalczynski, Anna & Lien, Donald, 2021. "Effectiveness of Augmented Dollar-Cost Averaging," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Michael Brennan & Feifei Li & Walter Torous, 2005. "Dollar Cost Averaging," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 509-535, December.
    5. Mingers, John & Parker, Kim T., 2010. "Should you stop investing in a sinking fund when it is sinking?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 508-513, November.
    6. Karyl Leggio & Donald Lien, 2003. "An empirical examination of the effectiveness of dollar-cost averaging using downside risk performance measures," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 27(2), pages 211-223, June.
    7. Malliaris, A.G. & Malliaris, Mary E., 2008. "Investment principles for individual retirement accounts," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 393-404, March.
    8. Moshe Milevsky, 2004. "A diffusive wander through human life," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 21-23.
    9. Zvika Afik, 2015. "Do not put all your eggs in one (time) basket," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 29(3), pages 251-269, August.
    10. Vora, Premal P. & McGinnis, John D., 2000. "The asset allocation decision in retirement: lessons from dollar-cost averaging," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 47-63, 00.
    11. Langer, Thomas & Nauhauser, Niels, 2002. "Zur Bedeutung von Cost-Average-Effekten bei Einzahlungsplänen und Portefeuilleumschichtungen," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 02-50, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    12. Xuejun Jin & Hongze Li & Bin Yu, 2023. "The day‐of‐the‐month effect and the performance of the dollar cost averaging strategy: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 797-815, April.
    13. Michele Bisceglia & Paola Zola, 2018. "Dollar-Cost Averaging with Yearly and Biyearly Installments," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, February.
    14. Kirkby, J. Lars & Mitra, Sovan & Nguyen, Duy, 2020. "An analysis of dollar cost averaging and market timing investment strategies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(3), pages 1168-1186.
    15. Ramon P. DeGennaro, 2003. "Direct investments in securities: A primer," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 88(Q1), pages 1-14.
    16. Ewald, Christian-Oliver & Menkens, Olaf & Hung Marten Ting, Sai, 2013. "Asian and Australian options: A common perspective," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1001-1018.
    17. Hung-Cheng Lai & Tseng-Chan Tseng & Sz-Chi Huang, 2016. "Combining value averaging and Bollinger Band for an ETF trading strategy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(37), pages 3550-3557, August.
    18. Dirk Ulbricht, 2013. "Stock Investments for Old-Age: Less Return, More Risk, and Unexpected Timing," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1324, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

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