Agreed that an example of buying once per year (or quarter / month) over time and calculating the return of that scenario is more applicable to the experience o

Agreed that an example of buying once per year (or quarter / month) over time and calculating the return of that scenario is more applicable to the experience of a regular investor. This can be eye-balled on this chart: https://themeasureofaplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Rolling-Returns-1074.png https://themeasureofaplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Rol... The bottom graph shows the annualized return for each 20-year period in market history. 20-year holding periods have this behaviour: - Max: 13.2% - Min: 0.5% - Average: 6.6% - Std. Dev.: 3% So, if you dollar cost average over time and hold each of those investment cohorts for ~20 years, you should expect an average annual return of roughly 6% (+/- 3%).