Shadowing Practice: When Is the Best Time To Buy Stocks? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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- Philip, our savings is gone!

Look! - Yeah, I know.

I put it in the stock market.

- Now? While the market's tanking?

What were you thinking?

- You told me to.

- No, I didn't.

- Yeah, you did.

You texted me yesterday, "Don't forget to buy the dip." - I meant the onion dip for the party this weekend.

- Oh. - I hope you at least bought some blue chips.

- Of course I did.

- Well, that's corny.

Whenever the market is down, you'll hear a chorus of voices saying you should "Buy the dip." But what does that mean exactly?

- Put simply, buying the dip means investing money into the stock market when share prices have recently fallen.

Since the shares are essentially on sale, you get more bang for your buck, or so the thinking goes.

When the market rises again, you'll get a higher return on your investment.

If the goal of every stock trader is to buy low and sell high, then buying the dip makes total sense.

- Imagine, for instance, that this is the last 12 months of a blue chip stock price.

If you get it- - Oh, blue chip!

- If you manage to buy, say, $1,000 worth of stock at this point, you would've almost doubled your money in less than a year.

- But, of course, nothing looks easier in hindsight than stock trading.

The hard part is knowing when a stock has hit its lowest point.

If you had bought it just a bit earlier, you wouldn't be making nearly as much.

And if you waited just a bit longer, you would've missed your chance completely.

- And that's just the beginning of the dangers.

Buying the dip relies on a statistical principle called regression towards the mean.

It says that ups and downs are basically temporary, and they will all average out to reflect a stable statistical trend.

Traders who buy the dip are assuming that if a stock price falls sharply, it will most likely go back up again.

- And that is the case much of the time, especially when fluctuations are based on investor emotional trends.

But sometimes, a fall in stock price is indicative of a fundamental problem in the company or sector.

Maybe a company is poorly run and the stock price deserves to crash.

Instead of buying the dip, you may find yourself tumbling down a cliff with no bottom in sight.

- Despite these risks, you still might be interested in buying the dip.

So, how should you go about it?

Most investors who attempt it will set some portion of their investment dollars aside in cash, waiting for a stock to fall from a recent peak by a certain percentage, say between 10 and 50%.

Both ends of this spectrum carry risk.

If you set the percentage too low, you may buy in well before a stock has hit its bottom.

But set it too high, and you may be waiting around forever.

- For example, Ted here has about $20,000 to invest, but he wants to buy the dip.

So he keeps $3,000 in cash and waits for one of his favorite stocks to fall by 20%.

Finally, after 12 months, it happens.

And Ted picks up 20% more shares than his money would've bought the week before.

The stock falls a little lower. Eek!

But then starts regressing toward the mean, even surpassing its recent high.

Well done, Ted! You beat the system.

- Or, did he?

Ted may have bought the stock at a relatively low price.

But when you look a little further back in time, it doesn't seem like such a win.

This stock, like many, has a fairly consistent upward trend.

He bought the stock for less than it cost a week ago, but more than it cost 12 months ago.

If Ted had just gotten all of his money in at the beginning, he'd have done better overall.

- Ted failed to factor in the opportunity cost of waiting to buy the dip.

Most financial advisors will recommend that if you have money to invest, invest it now.

Cash that just sits around is worse than wasted potential, it's actually losing value thanks to inflation.

- There is, however, another investment method that confers some of the benefits of buying the dip without all of the risks.

It's called dollar-cost averaging.

It's actually really simple.

You just commit to putting the same percentage of your paycheck into the stock market every month, regardless of whether it's up or down.

- So for instance, let's say that Marisol here decides to put $200 a month into her favorite stocks, no matter the price.

That means that when the share price is inflated, she'll buy less of them.

And when the share price is low, she'll buy more.

It's an automatic way of making sure you're paying what the stock is really worth historically.

And for the vast majority of investors, it has a much better track record than trying to buy the dip.

- Don't get us wrong.

Some people have had great success in buying the dip.

And if you've been waiting for the right time to start investing, it's not a bad idea to get in when shares are cheap.

- But just like a gambler who occasionally hits the jackpot, most people who make a habit of it will eventually come out behind.

Study after study has concluded that accurately timing the market is virtually impossible.

- Disciplined investors who think long-term and don't try to beat the system almost always perform better.

- And that's our two cents.

- History lovers, we need to tell you about a new series from PBS called "The Bigger Picture".

Hosted by Professor Vincent Brown, it's a show that examines famous photographs and unpacks the historical context around them.

- In doing so, we reveal what these photos can tell us about our history, but also how we view ourselves.

Check the link in the description and head to the PBS YouTube channel to see it for yourself, and tell them "Two Cents" sent you.

Thanks to our patrons for keeping "Two Cents" financially healthy.

Click the link in the description to become a "Two Cents" patron.

If you've ever tried to buy the dip, let us know how it went in the comments.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “When Is the Best Time To Buy Stocks?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: stock, dip, price, buying, Ted. This video has 77 sentences and 1037 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:04. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
investor noun	/ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/	A person who invests money in order to make a profit.
patron noun	/ˈpeɪ.tɹən/	One who protects or supports; a defender or advocate.
trader noun	/ˈtɹeɪdɚ/	One who earns a living by trading goods or securities.
statistical adjective	/stəˈtɪs.tɪ.kəl/	Of or pertaining to statistics.
confer verb	/kənˈfɜː/	To grant as a possession; to bestow.
fluctuation noun	/flʌkt͡ʃuːˈeɪʃən/	A motion like that of waves; a moving in this and that direction; an irregular rising and falling.
gambler noun		One who plays at a game of chance, who gambles.
hindsight noun	/ˈhaɪn(d)saɪt/	Realization or understanding of the significance and nature of events after they have occurred.
inflate verb	/ɪnˈfleɪt/	To enlarge an object by pushing air (or a gas) into it; to raise or expand abnormally
paycheck noun	/ˈpeɪ.t͡ʃɛk/	A periodic payment, usually in the form of a paper check, received by an employee from an employer for work performed.
regress verb	/ˈɹiːˌɡɹɛs/	To move backwards to an earlier stage; to devolve.
regression noun	/ɹiːˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/	An action of regressing, a return to a previous state.
surpass verb	/sɚˈpæs/	To go beyond or exceed (something) in an adjudicative or literal sense.
tumble verb	/ˈtʌmbl̩/	To fall end over end; to roll over and over.
unpack verb	/ʌnˈpæk/	To remove from a package or container, particularly with respect to items that had previously been arranged closely and securely in a pack.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
sit around verb		To spend time sitting idly, not doing anything important.
wait around verb		To spend an especially lengthy period of time inactively, while expecting the arrival of someone or while anticipating some other event, often impatiently and…

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has hit · have had · has concluded
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are based · is inflated

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, would've, she'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fluctuation /flʌkt͡ʃuːˈeɪʃən/, regression /ɹiːˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/, sharply /ˈʃɑɹpli/, inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: statistical /stəˈtɪs.tɪ.kəl/, fluctuation /flʌkt͡ʃuːˈeɪʃən/, indicative /ɪnˈdɪk.ə.tɪv/, accurately /ˈæk.jə.ɹɪt.li/, historically /hɪˈstɔɹɪkli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like investor, patron, trader.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: When Is the Best Time To Buy Stocks? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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