Time in the market means staying invested for the long term, whereas timing the market usually refers to shorter investment periods. Time in the market doesn’t mean an investor should never change their asset allocation, but ‌that they would carefully consider selling any of their assets. There may be times when it’s better to sell an asset or when the investor has more money to invest, so they might consider adding a new asset. Investors will also generally want to rebalance their portfolios on a regular basis to ensure their investment is in line with their investment strategy. Timing the market refers to an investment strategy that entails getting into and out of the market at certain times. The goal of timing the market is to beat the average market performance.