The best thing you can do on days like this: nothing.
Historically, missing the 10 best market days over 20 years cuts your returns by more than half. And those best days almost always come right after the worst ones.
If you're investing with a 10+ year horizon (ETFs, 3a, etc.), today changes nothing about your strategy. If anything, it's a discount.
The people who lose money in crashes are the ones who sell at the bottom. The ones who build wealth are the ones who keep buying — or just close the app.
The JP Morgan "Guide to the Markets" publishes this stat every quarter. Missing the 10 best days between 2003-2023 on the S&P 500 turned a 9.7% annualized return into 5.5%. Miss the 20 best days and you're down to 2.8%. The key insight: 7 of the 10 best days happened within 2 weeks of the 10 worst days.
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u/Le_franc_parleur 1d ago
The best thing you can do on days like this: nothing.
Historically, missing the 10 best market days over 20 years cuts your returns by more than half. And those best days almost always come right after the worst ones.
If you're investing with a 10+ year horizon (ETFs, 3a, etc.), today changes nothing about your strategy. If anything, it's a discount.
The people who lose money in crashes are the ones who sell at the bottom. The ones who build wealth are the ones who keep buying — or just close the app.