Some clients have always wanted to try to time the market – to be in for the market for the ups and on the sidelines for the downs.

And those numbers have grown, driven by anxiety about the direction of markets and seemingly constant media coverage of money managers and market strategists making short term forecasts.

The only way to deal with the desire to time markets is to help clients understand how low the chances are of achieving this goal.

Just telling clients this isn’t good enough – in many cases, we have to provide evidence from a credible source to back us up.

A recent column in the Globe and Mail, titled The Market Timing Trap, might help in that regard.

This column made three key points.

First, while there are a number of managers broadly acknowledged as great stock pickers, there is no one who has consistently proven successful at calling the times to enter and exit the market.

Second, those forecasters who have achieved prominence at calling markets have tended to be one or two shot wonders.

Finally, even with hindsight and back testing, it’s still tough to call the market. The column points to a U.S.  article where an advisor modeled a 50-50 stock bond portfolio going back to 1925, comparing it to his approach in which stock exposure was higher when valuations were low and lower when valuations were high. While this approach did increase returns vs an automatic 50-50 stock bond blend, it still substantially underperformed an all-stock portfolio, proof once again of how  incredibly hard it has proven to time markets.

To read the full column, go to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/e-zines/globe-investor-magazine/the-market-timing-trap/article1279845/