Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) is a disciplined investment practice of committing a fixed monetary amount to the market at regular intervals — weekly, monthly, or quarterly — without regard to current price levels. When prices are low, the fixed amount buys more shares; when prices are high, it buys fewer. Over time, this produces an average cost per share that is lower than the average price across the same period.
DCA's most powerful attribute is behavioural: it removes the temptation to try to time the market and keeps investors contributing through periods of fear when one-time lump sum investors often pause. Research consistently shows that investors who are disciplined about DCA outperform those who attempt to time their contributions.
The comparison between DCA and active market timing is the central tension StockTiming explores. The question is not whether DCA is good — it demonstrably is, for most investors — but whether a systematic timing approach can improve upon it after accounting for all costs: missed gains from being out of the market, transaction friction, tax drag, and the psychological cost of executing on signals during market stress.