http://www.cnbc.com/id/18397003/site/14081545/ the S&P500 is above it's record close right now. what a comeback!! and for those of you who will pooh-pooh the sentiment with the 'so it is flat over 5 years' argument, the value of the S&P has TRIPLED!! since March 1995. 200% return over 12 years? I'll take that any day.
True, if you had timed the market, you could have made more. It's next to impossible for a retail investor to time the market.
Timing it perfectly? Sure. But you don't need perfect timing. Set some stops so if it drops below NNNNN, you're out. And then when it's back to goign somewhere, decide what indicators you need / want to jump back in. Then in the meantime you put that money into something that's getting returns. This isn't practical for a lot of people but not because of the timing so much as they're just not into putting that sort of time into things.