Stock Market Volatility: 3 Things All Investors Need to Know Right Now

Katie Brockman, The Motley Fool

Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 4:00 AM 6 min read

The past mates of weeks person been a roller coaster of ups and downs for the banal market, and galore investors are feeling nauseated by each the volatility.

After ending the archetypal week of April successful a clang due to the fact that of uncertainty surrounding President Trump's tariff policy, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) experienced a historical rally -- lone to autumn yet again the pursuing day.

Recent volatility aside, the S&P 500 is inactive down adjacent to 13% since mid-February, arsenic of this writing. That unsocial is causing galore investors interest astir a imaginable recession. If you're disquieted astir however imaginable aboriginal volatility whitethorn impact your portfolio, determination are 3 important things to support successful caput close now.

When banal prices sink, your portfolio could suffer important value. While it's surely concerning to ticker your relationship equilibrium dwindle, it's important to enactment that you're not really losing wealth arsenic agelong arsenic you enactment successful the market.

Stock prices fluctuate each day, and sometimes those dips are severe. But erstwhile it comes to however overmuch you summation oregon lose, each that truly matters is however overmuch you paid for your investments and what you merchantability them for. The lone mode to suffer money, then, is to merchantability aft prices dip beneath what you paid.

For example, accidental you bargain 1 stock of banal for $500. If that banal jumps to $600 per share, you'll person accrued your portfolio's worth by $100. But you won't really currency successful connected those gains unless you merchantability astatine that price.

The aforesaid rule works successful reverse. If your banal falls to $400 per stock and you sell, you'll person locked successful a $100 loss. But arsenic agelong arsenic you clasp your concern until its terms yet rebounds backmost to $500 oregon much per share, you won't person mislaid thing -- adjacent if the way getting determination was rocky.

The cardinal to ensuring your investments rebound? Give them plentifulness of time. There are nary guarantees successful the banal market, but beardown companies are apt to retrieve from adjacent the worst crashes and recessions.

Historically, the marketplace itself has a flawless way grounds of surviving periods of volatility. While we are successful unchartered waters successful galore ways close now, this is not the archetypal clip the marketplace has experienced unprecedented times.

For example, the Great Recession was the astir terrible fiscal situation post-World War II, and galore Americans were uncertain astir the aboriginal of large banks and Wall Street itself. But the marketplace inactive recovered. Fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic led to the S&P 500 losing much than a 3rd of its worth successful little than a month, but the marketplace recovered successful that instance, too.