ETF Investing Strategies: Buy and Hold vs. Moving Average Week 29

Twenty-nine weeks are in the books since we started comparing a buy and hold ETF investing strategy to a moving average investing strategy. This past week the S&P 500 went up about 28 points as it continues its move up since bottoming out in March of this year.

The buy and hold investor was fortunate to have jumped into the market in March. He has seen his portfolio increase by over 47% in just over 7 months! His total portfolio is now valued at $14,782.66 (initial investment was $10,044). His portfolio is made up 10 ETFs from a balanced ETF portfolio used for this comparison.

The moving average investor has just recently invested in the 10th ETF from the same portfolio. He uses a 50 day/200 day cross-over investing strategy that you can read about here. His portfolio is now worth $10,777.03 for a 7.3% gain.

The past 12 weeks of performance for each investor is shown below. I am only tracking ETF price changes and not accounting for dividends in this comparison. Click on the chart for a larger view.

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, this comparison will really have meaning now that both investors are fully in the market. When the market has a decline, the moving average investor will be selling ETFs while the buy and hold investor will stand pat. We'll see over time which is the better long-term investing strategy.