Archive · 11 Aug 2026
Missing Five Best Market Days Can Cost Investors Lakhs: Study
Imagine you save ₹1 lakh to invest.
A company that studies money looked at the Indian stock market over 21 years.
They wanted to see what happens if you keep your money invested the whole time.
They compared that with people who missed out on the five best days of the market.
Missing just five good days made a big difference.
For one index, staying invested turned ₹1 lakh into about ₹15.39 lakh.
Missing the five best days meant you would have only about ₹9.83 lakh.
That is a difference of more than ₹5 lakh.
The biggest difference was in mid-size companies, where the gap was about ₹9.38 lakh.
The lesson is that it is usually better to stay invested than to try to guess the best time to buy and sell.
Abakkus Mutual Fund's analysis of April 2005–July 2026 shows missing the five best market days sharply reduces long-term returns.
A ₹1 lakh investment staying invested in the Nifty 50 TRI grew to ₹15.39 lakh, versus ₹9.83 lakh if the five best days were missed.
The Nifty Midcap 150 TRI posted the highest 17.20% CAGR for stay-invested investors but the largest wealth gap of ₹9.38 lakh.
Wealth gaps were ₹5.81 lakh for the Nifty 100 TRI and ₹7.01 lakh for the Nifty Smallcap 250 TRI.
The study warns that attempting to time the market carries severe financial penalties compared with staying consistently invested.
- Who
- Investors in Indian equity indices, as analyzed by Abakkus Mutual Fund
- What
- A study quantifying how missing just the five best-performing market days over 21 years reduces the value of a ₹1 lakh investment
- When
- Between April 2005 and July 2026, with data as of 31 July 2026
- Where
- Indian stock market, based on NSE-listed indices
- Why
- To highlight the financial penalty of attempting to time the market versus staying invested consistently
- Study by
- Abakkus Mutual Fund
- Period covered
- April 2005 – July 2026
- Data as of
- 31 July 2026
- Assumed investment
- ₹1 lakh
- Highest CAGR (stayed invested)
- Nifty Midcap 150 TRI at 17.20%
- Largest wealth gap
- ₹9.38 lakh (Nifty Midcap 150 TRI)
- Smallest wealth gap
- ₹5.55 lakh (Nifty 50 TRI)
- Nifty 50 TRI CAGR
- 13.67% stayed invested vs 11.31% missing best five days