The FTSE 100 has been — some might say stealthily — creeping up in recent days and weeks. This led me to remind myself what its previous high at market close has been.
Almost four years ago, on 22 May 2018, the Footsie peaked at 7,877. As I write, it’s past 7,600 — in other words, at levels last seen in recent years in the middle of January 2020.
I thought it would be interesting to hear from a number of our Twitter followers, and specifically their predictions when the FTSE 100 might shoot past that May ’18 all-time high.
My quick takeaway: the majority of Fools are confident that it’s coming — and soon!
But I threw in one sly option into the poll. Because, to be honest, it doesn’t matter to me.
Of course, a rising market might well mean that a number of my investments have seen their share prices increase, contributing to the index’s fresh highs.
And I also have a position in the HSBC FTSE 100 ETF, an index tracker fund that follows the Footsie. So if the index goes down, so does the value of my investment.
And yet — It. Doesn’t. Matter. To. Me.
That’s because I will continue to invest, through good times and bad. In bull and bear markets alike.
I’m a firm believer of ‘time in‘ over ‘timing the markets’. And if I have money that I don’t believe I’ll need in the next three to five years, I’ll most likely put a healthy amount of it into stocks.
Put another way, I hope to be investing when the FTSE 100 reaches 9,000 or 10,000 (or higher!)
And when there’s another stock-market sell-off, I’ll seize the opportunity to buy into beaten-down shares at quality companies.
Because investing Foolishly (not foolishly) is what matters to me!