====== dollar_cost_averaging ======
===== The 30-Second Summary =====
  *   **The Bottom Line:** **Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) is the simple, powerful strategy of investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, turning market volatility from your enemy into your ally.**
  *   **Key Takeaways:**
  * **What it is:** A disciplined approach where you invest the same amount of money on a set schedule (e.g., $200 every month), regardless of the asset's price.
  * **Why it matters:** It automates discipline, prevents emotional decisions, and systematically helps you buy more shares when prices are low and fewer when they are high. It's the antidote to the fool's errand of [[market_timing]].
  * **How to use it:** The most common application is setting up automatic, recurring investments into a broad-market [[exchange_traded_fund|ETF]] or [[mutual_fund]] through your brokerage account.
===== What is Dollar-Cost Averaging? A Plain English Definition =====
Imagine you love buying fresh apples from the local farmer's market every Saturday. You've decided to budget exactly $10 for apples each week.
One week, the apples are a bargain at $1 per pound. Your $10 gets you a hefty 10 pounds of apples. The next week, a cold snap has made them scarcer, and the price jumps to $2 per pound. Your same $10 now only gets you 5 pounds. On the third week, the price settles at $1.25 per pound, and you walk away with 8 pounds.
After three weeks, you've spent $30 and have a total of 23 pounds of apples. Your average cost per pound wasn't the simple average of the prices ($1, $2, $1.25), which is $1.42. Instead, your actual average cost was your total cost ($30) divided by your total pounds (23), which comes out to about **$1.30 per pound**.
Without even thinking about it, your fixed-budget strategy made you automatically buy //more// when the price was low and //less// when the price was high.
**This is the essence of Dollar-Cost Averaging.**
In investing, you simply replace "apples" with "shares of a company or fund" and "pounds" with "number of shares." DCA is the practice of investing a fixed sum of money at regular intervals—say, $500 on the first of every month—into a particular investment, regardless of the share price. By committing to this automated schedule, you end up buying more shares when the market is down (when they're "on sale") and fewer shares when the market is up (when they're expensive).
It’s a beautifully simple concept that transforms market fluctuations, something most investors fear, into a systematic advantage.
> //"The investor's chief problem—and even his worst enemy—is likely to be himself." - Benjamin Graham//
This quote from the father of value investing, [[benjamin_graham|Benjamin Graham]], perfectly captures why DCA is so powerful. It acts as a circuit breaker for our own worst emotional impulses—the fear that makes us sell at the bottom and the greed that makes us buy at the top.
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===== Why It Matters to a Value Investor =====
While often promoted as a strategy for beginners, Dollar-Cost Averaging is deeply aligned with the core tenets of value investing. A true value investor isn't just looking for cheap stocks; they are cultivating a specific temperament built on discipline, patience, and rationality. DCA is a powerful tool for building and reinforcing that temperament.
  *   **Enforces Emotional Discipline:** The number one killer of investment returns isn't a bad economy or a poor-performing company; it's bad decisions driven by emotion. When the market tanks, our instincts scream "Sell! Get out before it goes to zero!" When it soars, we're tempted by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) to pile in at any price. DCA replaces these emotional reactions with a calm, logical, and automatic action: "It's the first of the month. I will invest my planned $500." This mechanical consistency is a value investor's best friend.
  *   **Systematically Exploits Volatility:** A value investor, armed with an understanding of a company's [[intrinsic_value|intrinsic value]], sees market volatility not as a risk, but as an opportunity. A great company's stock price might fall 20% due to a market-wide panic, but its long-term business prospects are likely unchanged. This creates a buying opportunity. DCA is the //systematic// way to take advantage of these opportunities. As prices fall, your fixed dollar investment automatically scoops up more and more shares, lowering your average cost and building a larger position when the [[margin_of_safety|margin of safety]] is widest.
  *   **Focuses on Accumulation, Not Timing:** Value