The strategy is simple enough, you make regular monthly investments so that in bull or bear markets you always put a proportion of your money into the market. In a rising market it makes less sense than putting all of your money in in a lump sum, but in a volatile market it means you get to purchase more shares (or units if it is a managed investment) in bearish times, while in bull phases you buy less.

It is a nice sort of strategy in that it is inherently contrarian by nature. Your $200 a month might only buy 150 shares when they are expensive, but that same amount of money will buy 300 shares if the market corrects by 50%. At the end of the day, the average cost of your purchases is lower than someone who had bought in one go when prices were high. It isn't quite market timing, but it does work out well because the majority of the units you buy will have been bought when prices were down.

Dollar cost averaging works particularly well with managed investments since brokerage is low and many fund managers allow you to set up that facility by direct debiting your bank account. As long as you have the conviction that the market is a good long term investment, and you keep that in mind when the market dips, dollar cost averaging can be an excellent way to buy more stocks when they are cheap, using volatility to your advantage.

It is especially nice if you forget that the dollar cost averaging facility is even there because it bypasses all human emotion and market mania, giving your investment plan discipline. In particular it is good for superannuation because your time frame may well be decades, so every time the market crashes you can rejoice at how many units you are now accumulating. All that counts is the number of units you own and their value when you finally cash out, not how volatile historical quoted prices were during your accumulation phase.