This is true historically. But at certain times it's a complete no-brainer to enter the market or not. For instance consider post Covid at around March/April 2020. Stocks have dropped 20-30%. It took Moderna 2-3 days to develop a vaccine, is a 20% drop in e.g. Apple justified, or is it simply free money?
How far would the stocks have fallen if the US hadn’t pumped absolutely massive amounts of money into the stock market? When it falls and keeps falling people suddenly realize how worthless all the paper stocks they have been buying are and don’t want to keep buying more. I suspect 30% drop would have been the tip of the iceberg and no one asked me if I wanted my tax dollars spent this way so the rich that own all the equities could keep their paper gains.
Or were we on the verge of a complete global economic meltdown? I admit I transferred a fair bit into very safe investments at the time. As a result I didn't do as well as I could have (but well enough). But it was still a reasonable hedging strategy IMO.
