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By dollar cost averaging, buying about the same amount of new assets at regular intervals, one can acquire more shares during market dips and so have a mean discount in one's purchases. This strategy can be rather effective with the typically more volatile overseas markets.
Suppose, for instance, one had decided a decade ago to keep things simple and invest $6000 a year ($500 a month, if one were saving up for the annual purchases) through a tax-deferred account (in one's employer sponsored 401k plan, for instance) in The China Fund (CHN), and that the investments began at the market price per share on the first trading day of November, 1999, and continued on the first trading day of November of each year thereafter. Assuming one had not withdrawn or taken distributions in any funds and that dividends and capital gains had been reinvested, one now should have about 3775 shares, at an average cost of around $17.50 per share, for a net gain (based on the close of trading market value on 11/19/09 of The China Fund shares) of around 56%, resulting in a total present value (for one's $66,000 cost basis) of $103,000, an annualized return of over 8% (given the mean per share hold period of roughly 5.6 years), not bad considering that, even after the run-up of late, the average U.S. share has been down significantly over the past decade.
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