31 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,June 25,2020 insidehalton.com It's in your hands. Make sure your favourite business or professional is nominated for the Oakville Beaver's 2020 Readers' Choice Awards. The Oakville Beaver Readers' Choice Awards were created so you can tell us which local businesses and service providers are the best at what they do. Once the nominations close on July 26, 2020, the nominees will be shortlisted and you will have the chance to vote for your favourite. Help make your favourite local business become a Oakville Beaver Readers' Choice. NomiNatioNs NowopeN Start nominating now at insidehalton.com/oBRC Michelle Knoll (second from right) of the Oak Park food bank joins with members of the Kinsmen Club of Oakville - including (from left) Scottie Johnston, Ralph Robinson, Bud Kovack and Holly Thompson - in unloading the donated food that made up 2,000 meals in support of those in need. Kinsmen Club of Oakville photo A HEFTY HAUL S&P 500 data over 50 years shows the enormous cost of timing the market and missing out on the best days of stock performance. Long-term stock investing can be less risky with a buy-and-hold strategy. The trouble with timing the stock market, and sell- ing to avoid an anticipated decline in value, is you might miss days that stock prices rise. Consider the cost to an investor by missing some of the best days the stock market has to offer. We will use the value of the S&P 500, an index of large companies in the United States, from Janu- ary 1970 to March 2020. For patient long-term investors that invested $1,000 in US stocks in 1970, over the next 50 years that investment would have grown to $121,000. As we know, many investors are not patient. If you miss the best-per- forming single day during that five-decade period, the return drops to $108,000. Miss the best five days, and your return shrinks to $77,000. Miss the best 15 days and your return shrinks to $43,000 and if you miss the best 25 days, your return is only $26,000. Every investor has their own unique circumstances dictating their actions. Un- less there are extenuating circumstances, we recom- mend stocks be owned by those with a long-term per- spective and in most cases is best done on a buy-and- hold basis. Fear that leads to short- term market timing can be most prevalent during times of economic unrest. These times are more like- ly to have exaggerated stock market volatility both up and down. Peter Watson is regis- tered with Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI) to provide investment advice. Investment products are provided by ACPI. ACPI is a member of the Invest- ment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACPI. Peter Watson provides wealth management ser- vices through Watson In- vestments. He can be con- tacted through www.wat- soninvestments.com. OPINION TIMING THE STOCK MARKET CAN BE RISKY IT'S BEST TO TAKE A LONG-TERM BUY-AND-HOLD STRATEGY WHEN INVESTING, WRITES PETER WATSON PETER WATSON Column