The Most Annoying Phrase on The Street

How many times have you heard a Money Manager say " We don't time the market-we are long-term investors"? What?! What are we paying you for?! We could buy the SPY (ETF) and out-perform over 90% of the mutual funds in existence with less expenses. The best managers have exhibited some form of market timing-yes...even The Oracle. Does a good farmer plant all his/her crops at the same time? Does a good shopper buy all their goods at the same time? Does everything in this universe depend on timing? The obvious answer is YES. When I used to pick money managers for clients and my firm-if a portfolio manager ever said this......well you probably know the answer. The timing may be minutes, daily, weekly, monthly, annual, or more. Everything moves in cycles. I have a saying: If it is flat lining-it is probably dead.