What is Dollar Cost Averaging?
Dollar cost averaging (DCA) is an investment strategy in which an investor periodically invests a fixed dollar amount in a particular investment, regardless of the investment's price. The benefits of dollar cost averaging include:
Reducing Risk: By investing a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals, an investor can reduce the risk of buying shares at the wrong time, that is, when the price is high.
Averaging out the cost: By purchasing shares at different prices, an investor can average out the cost of their shares, which can help to reduce the overall cost of the investment.
Simplicity: Dollar cost averaging is a simple strategy that doesn't require investors to predict market movements or time the market.
Discipline: DCA helps investors to be disciplined in their investment approach, by investing a fixed amount regularly, investors are less likely to be swayed by market fluctuations
Helps to avoid emotional decision: DCA helps to avoid the emotional decision of investing a large sum at one time, this emotional decision often is driven by fear of missing out (FOMO) or fear of losing the opportunity of getting in to the market.
It's important to note that, DCA is not guaranteed to be a profitable strategy and past performance is not indicative of future results, also, it's important to consider the cost of the investment, and the fees associated with it.