Stock market timing strategies can be long or short term. The strategies are different for single stocks than they are for mutual funds, of course. With single stocks you base your strategy on your knowledge of an individual company. What are the fundamentals of the company; earnings, sales, assets, technology and management. The context of the over all market for the service or product that the company produces is also relevant to knowing when to buy and when to sell.
Buy low and sell high is the cliche. How to tell when to do either is the trick. And when to do either really depends on your willingness to invest your own time in studying companies (for individual plays) and market sector basics (for funds).
In opposition to stock market timing strategies is buy and hold. The thinking behind buy and hold is that overtime, stock markets will rise. If one can weather out blips and bubbles, one will make money in the market. That is fine as far as it goes, but even in a traditional investment scheme, one has to be able to recognize when one is sitting on a bubble. The 2000 to 2001 collapse of the tech sector demonstrated this to many. More recently, the housing bubble crushed many. In short, if it looks like a bubble, buy and hold is not successful.
Setting limits is a commonly used tactic when it comes to stock market timing strategies. Buying stocks when they are at their highest level is only a good timing strategy when the company is a penny stock that has made some sort of fundamental breakthrough.
Mining stocks are the clearest example of this. If a mining stock hits the motherlode, buying it early, even it has risen to its highest ever, is feasible as you have actual metal in the ground to securitize your investment.
But keep in mind that these types of investments are almost total losses if the only thing drive the valuation upward is air. For this reason, you should only risk this type of in and out when a change in a company's fundamentals is shaping up. For a wireless technology company this could be something as simple as the adoption of an industry standard that is compatible with the company's technology.
As far as funds go, it is market fundamentals that one must pay attention to. Again, the technology sector gives us prime examples. When the technology bubble started to deflate in February of 2000, the deflation continued well into 2001. Getting out of tech-based mutual funds in the spring of 2000 saved many investors from ruin. Those who bought and held even after it became clear many of the tech companies would not survive paid dearly.
Stock market timing strategies versus buy and hold is a debate that will continue far as long as there are stock markets. The market moves on emotion, but it earns on fundamentals. Day traders make their living on stock market timing strategies. For the average investor, however, buy and hold, but staying informed and being willing to move when fundamentals warrant, are the order of the day.
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