Knowing when to buy or sell a stock is very important. It can mean the difference between a long term loss or gain of an investment. Due to many of today's negative factors, the buy and hold strategy of past years is no longer a wise proposition. Even if it was you would still benefit more through buying and selling at the correct times.
Consider if you had bought the S&P500 in March of 2009 and sold anywhere from February-July of 2011. You would have gained atleast 78% on your money. Let's say you bought in any month after March of 2009 and sold anywhere from February-July of 2011. Any of those months would have ended in less than 78% on your money.
