Don’t try to time the market – here's how to get rich slowly with investment trusts

Everyone wants to buy low and sell high. But that's easier said than done, says Max King. The best advice is to focus on the long term and ignore the market swings.

Slowly does it... © Getty
(Image credit: filipfoto)

Investors agonise unnecessarily about timing their investments. Nobody wants to be the fool that bought at the top, but it is human nature to be carried away by the euphoria of a rising market, projecting past returns indefinitely into the future.

Similarly, everyone wants to buy at the market low but that is easier said than done. With markets plunging, confidence falling, the consensus of media experts gloomy and corporate profits on the slide, it is easy to delay, waiting for better news and hoping for even lower prices.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.