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Financial encyclopediaReviewed 2026-10-23

Dollar Cost Averaging

Dollar-cost averaging means investing your money in equal portions, at regular intervals, regardless of the ups and downs in the market. This investment strategy can help you manage risk by following a consistent pattern of adding new money to your investment over a long period of time.  By making regular investments with the same amount of money each time, you will buy more of an investment when its price is low and less of the investment when its price is high.

Sources and references ↗
PROFILE / FACT FILE

Concept at a glance

Term
Dollar Cost Averaging [1]
Subject area
Investor.gov glossary [1]
Jurisdiction / scope
US regulatory and investor-education context [1]
Primary reference
SEC · Investor.gov [1]

Definition and explanation

Dollar-cost averaging means investing your money in equal portions, at regular intervals, regardless of the ups and downs in the market. This investment strategy can help you manage risk by following a consistent pattern of adding new money to your investment over a long period of time.  By making regular investments with the same amount of money each time, you will buy more of an investment when its price is low and less of the investment when its price is high. [1]

Frequently asked questions

What does Dollar Cost Averaging mean in the cited reference?

Dollar-cost averaging means investing your money in equal portions, at regular intervals, regardless of the ups and downs in the market. This investment strategy can help you manage risk by following a consistent pattern of adding new money to your investment over a long period of time.  By making regular investments with the same amount of money each time, you will buy more of an investment when its price is low and less of the investment when its price is high. [1]

Sources and review dates

  1. US SEC · Investor.gov — Dollar Cost Averaging ↗

Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.

Content preparation: source-based compilation with AI assistance. See methods and attribution. Named sources identify the underlying records; no individual expert review is claimed.