April 10, 2025

You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t fear loss.

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated this with his loss-aversion theory, showing that people feel the pain of losing money more than they enjoy gains. As such, investors’ natural instinct is to flee the market when it starts to plummet, just as greed prompts us to jump back in when stocks are skyrocketing. Both can have negative impacts.

We don’t know what the rest of this year will bring. But smart investing can overcome the power of emotion by focusing on relevant research, solid data and proven strategies. Here are seven principles that can help fight the urge to make emotional decisions in times of market turmoil.

1. Market declines are part of investing

Over long periods of time, stocks have tended to move steadily higher, but history tells us that stock market declines are an inevitable part of investing. The good news is that corrections (defined as a 10% or more decline), bear markets (an extended 20% or more decline) and other challenging patches haven’t lasted forever.

Market downturns happen frequently but don’t last forever

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.
As at 31 December 2024. Sources: Capital Group, RIMES, Standard & Poor‘s. Average frequency assumes 50% recovery of lost value. Average length measures market high to market low.

The S&P 500 Index has typically dipped at least 10% about once every 18 months, and 20% or more about every six years, according to data from 1954 to 2024. While past results are not predictive of future results, each downturn has been followed by a recovery and, over time, a new market high.

2. Time in the market matters, not market timing

No one can accurately predict short-term market moves, and investors who sit on the sidelines risk losing out on periods of meaningful price appreciation that follow market downturns.

Every S&P 500 decline of 15% or more, from 1929 through 2024, has been followed by a recovery. The average return in the first year after each of these declines was 52%.

Even missing out on just a few trading days can take a toll. A hypothetical investment of $1,000 in the S&P 500 made in 2014 would have grown to $2,869 by the end of 2024. But if an investor missed just the 10 best trading days during that period, he or she would have ended up with just $1,571 or 45% less.

Missing just a few best days in the market can hurt investment returns

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.
As at 31/12/2024. Sources: RIMES, Standard & Poor’s. Values in US dollars

3. Emotional investing can be hazardous

Kahneman won his Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work in behavioural economics, a field that investigates how individuals make financial decisions. A key finding of behavioural economists is that people often act irrationally when making such choices.

Emotional reactions to market events are perfectly normal. Investors should expect to feel nervous when markets decline. But it’s the actions taken during such periods that can mean the difference between investment success and shortfall.

Source: Capital Group

One way to encourage rational investment decision-making is to understand the fundamentals of behavioural economics. Understanding behaviours like anchoring, confirmation bias and availability bias may help investors identify potential mistakes before they make them.

4. Make a plan and stick to it

Creating and adhering to a thoughtfully constructed investment plan is another way to avoid making short-sighted investment decisions — particularly when markets move lower. The plan should take into account a number of factors, including risk tolerance and short- and long-term goals.

One way to avoid futile attempts to time the market is with dollar cost averaging, where a fixed amount of money is invested at regular intervals, regardless of market ups and downs. This approach creates a strategy in which more shares are purchased at lower prices and fewer shares are purchased at higher prices. Over time investors pay less, on average, per share. Regular investing does not ensure a profit or protect against loss. Investors should consider their willingness to keep investing when share prices are declining.

When stock prices fall, you can get more shares for the same amount of money and lower your average cost per share

For illustrative purposes only.
Over the 12-month period, the total amount invested was $6,000, and the total number of shares purchased was 439.94. The average price at which the shares traded was $15, and the average cost of the shares was $13.64 ($6,000/439.94). The figures shown are for illustrative purposes only and in no way represent the actual results of a specific investment.

Retirement plans, to which investors make automatic contributions with every pay cheque, are a prime example of dollar cost averaging.

5. Diversification matters

A diversified portfolio doesn’t guarantee profits or provide assurances that investments won’t decline in value, but it does lower risk. By spreading investments across a variety of asset classes, investors lower the probability of volatility in their portfolios. Overall returns won’t reach the highest highs of any single investment – but they won’t hit the lowest lows of any single investment either.

For investors who want to avoid some of the stress of down markets, diversification can help lower volatility.

Asset classes go in and out of favour

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.
As at 31 December 2024. Source: Refinitiv Datastream, RIMES. U.S. large-cap stocks – Standard & Poor's 500 Composite Index; global small-cap stocks – MSCI All Country World Small Cap Index; international stocks – MSCI All Country World ex USA Index; emerging markets stocks – MSCI Emerging Markets Index; U.S. bonds — Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index; International bonds — Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index; cash — Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bills Index: 1–3 Months.

6. Fixed income can help bring balance

Stocks are important building blocks of a diversified portfolio, but bonds can provide an essential counterbalance. That’s because bonds typically have a lower correlation to the stock market, meaning that they have tended to move in the opposite direction to equities — in other words, bonds have tended to zig when the stock market zagged.

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.
As at 31 December 2024. Sources: Capital Group, Morningstar. Averages were calculated by using the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 Index and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Index during the nine equity market correction periods since 2010: 23 April 2010 to 2 July 2010, 29 April 2011 to 3 October 2011, 21 May 2015 to 25 August 2015, 3 November 2015 to 11 February 2016, 26 January 2018 to 8 February 2018, 20 September 2018 to 24 December 2018, 19 February 2020 to 23 March 2020, 3 January 2022 to 12 October 2022, and 31 July 2023 to 27 October 2023. Corrections are based on price declines of 10% or more (without dividends reinvested) in the S&P 500 Index with at least 75% recovery.

What’s more, bonds with a low equity correlation can potentially help soften the impact of stock market losses on your overall portfolio. Funds providing this diversification can help create durable portfolios, and investors should seek bond funds with strong track records of positive returns through a variety of markets.

Though bonds may not be able to match the growth potential of stocks, they have often shown resilience in past equity declines. The market selloff in 2022 was unique in that many bonds did not play their typical safe-haven role. But in the five market declines prior to 2022, bonds — as measured by the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index — rose four times and never declined more than 1%.

7. The market tends to reward long-term investors

Is it reasonable to expect 30% returns every year? Of course not. And if stocks have moved lower in recent weeks, you shouldn’t expect that to be the start of a long-term trend, either. Behavioural economics tells us recent events carry an outsized influence on our perceptions and decisions.

It’s always important to maintain a long-term perspective, but especially when markets are declining. Although stocks rise and fall in the short term, they’ve tended to reward investors over longer periods of time. Even including downturns, the S&P 500’s mean return over all 10-year periods from 1939 to 2024 was 10.94%.

The market tends to reward long-term investors

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.
As at December 31, 2024Source: Capital Group Morningstar, RIMES, Standard & Poor’s. Based on rolling monthly 10-year periods.

It’s natural for emotions to bubble up during periods of market volatility. Those investors who can tune out the news are better positioned to plot out a wise investment strategy.

This article refers largely to dollars and to US indices, however we believe that the principles apply across global markets.