Buying a little every month (DCA)
Investing the same amount at regular intervals, without trying to guess the best moment.
Instead of putting everything in at once, you buy a little every month. When the price is high, the same amount buys less; when it's low, it buys more.
With $100 of bitcoin every month for the last 5 years (since November 2021), you'd have put in $6,000 and today you'd have $11,120. The chart shows the value against what you put in: there were long stretches when you were losing.
It doesn't guarantee a gain, and it doesn't always beat investing everything at once. What it does is take away the pressure of picking the moment.
It's called dollar-cost averaging (DCA). Since each purchase is the same amount, the average cost per unit is the harmonic mean of the prices, which is always less than or equal to the simple average of those same prices.
With an asset that rises over the long run, investing everything at the start usually ends with more, because the money is invested for longer. In exchange, DCA lowers the risk of getting in right before a big drop, and it matches how most people save: a bit of every paycheck.
The example buys at each month's close and doesn't deduct fees.
- What it was worth
- What you had put in
Buying at each month's close, no fees.
Try it yourself
The same $1,200: all at the start, or $100 every month for a year. Pick the asset and the month you'd have started.
A year later, all at once ended at $876 and little by little at $1,265: little by little won.
- All at once
- $100 every month
With bitcoin, out of 178 possible starts since 2011, all at once won in 67 out of 100.
Money not yet invested counts as cash. No fees.
Where you see it in Compass
- One dollar a day“One dollar a day” is exactly this, buying one dollar every day.
- Simulator · SimulateIn Simulate, with monthly or weekly contributions.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What does DCA mean?
Dollar-cost averaging: investing the same amount at regular intervals, whatever the price.
Is DCA better than investing everything at once?
It depends on what happens next, and nobody knows that in advance. If the price rises, investing everything at the start usually yields more; if it falls sharply soon after, DCA comes out ahead. DCA isn't about earning more, but about not depending on getting the timing right.
Calculated and reviewed by Compass. Sources, checks and method
Figures with data as of October 26, 2026. Educational content. Not financial advice. Past results don't guarantee future results.