market bottom
Market bottom is the lowest point a share price or the whole market falls to before it turns around and starts climbing again.
In plain English
Here is the strange part. Nobody rings a bell when the market hits bottom. The people who bought at the exact lowest point of the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index crash in 2020 did not know they had done anything clever until months later, when the price had already climbed far above what they paid.
A market bottom only becomes a fact after it has passed. While it is happening, it feels like the opposite of an opportunity. It feels like everyone is selling, the news is full of gloom, and holding on seems foolish. That discomfort is actually part of the definition. If it felt safe and obvious, it would not be the bottom, because everyone would already be buying.
Think about a Nigerian investor who bought shares in a bank stock during a rough patch when oil prices fell and the currency was under pressure. The stock had dropped for months. She bought more, and not since she was certain it was the lowest point, but because the price and the value of the bank did not match anymore. A year later, the price had doubled. She could not have known that particular week was the bottom. She only knew the price looked cheap against what the business was worth.
In London, the same pattern showed up with FTSE shares in early 2020, when the pandemic sent prices tumbling in weeks. The actual bottom came in March, but most people only felt confident buying again by the summer, after prices had already recovered a good portion of the fall.
For someone abroad sending money home to invest in Nigerian shares through a relative, this matters because timing the exact bottom is nearly impossible. What works instead is buying steadily, a bit at a time, so that some of that money lands near the low point even if you never spot it in advance.
A stock falls from ₦40 to ₦12 over eight months as investors panic and sell. It sits around ₦11 to ₦13 for a few weeks, then slowly climbs back to ₦25 over the next year. Looking back, ₦11 was the market bottom, but nobody could point to that week while it was happening.
Questions people ask
How can I tell when a market has hit its bottom?
You genuinely cannot tell in the moment. It only becomes clear afterwards, once prices have started rising steadily for a while. Anyone claiming to spot it exactly, in real time, is guessing like everyone else.
Is it wise to wait for the market bottom before investing?
Waiting for the perfect low point often means missing the recovery entirely, since prices can turn around fast. Many people who wait for certainty end up buying later at a higher price than if they had simply started earlier.
Does every market crash have a clear bottom before it recovers?
Most do eventually turn around, but the depth and length of the fall differ each time. Some bottoms form quickly within months, others take years, which is why spreading purchases over time is safer than betting on one moment.
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