Especially not when making investment decisions.
Uptrends are slow and methodical.
Gains don’t come in big chunks but rather a stairstep process.
Uptrends almost lull us investors to sleep because there isn’t much going on in terms of volatility.
Downtrends, on the other hand, are erratic.
Returns are lumpy as both gains and losses take the elevator up and down.
𝗡𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁.
Duh.
But we all have control over how much we save, how we allocate our assets, how often we check the market value of our portfolios (rather seldom) and how we make intelligent investment decisions (typically they are those that are NOT dominated by emotions).
Let’s just focus on what we can control and let the chips fall where they may.
Life gets better when we start realizing that we’re in control of something.
Simple, right?
But not easy.
“Behavior is hard to fix. When people say they’ve learned their lesson they underestimate how much of their previous mistake was caused by emotions that will return when faced with the same circumstances.” – Morgan Housel
“Over decade-long time horizons, your investment performance will mainly be derived from how you handle corrections, bear markets, and market crashes.” – Ben Carlson
“A world equity index tracker is the only equity investment a rational investor ever needs to own.” – Lars Kroijer, Investing Demystified
Exactly!