We don’t know what happens next.
That’s true every day. You are just feeling it now.
You checked your app these mornings. You felt it in your guts before the numbers loaded. What you are feeling is not panic. It’s something quieter and worse: the suspicion that maybe this time it is different. That this time the ground has shifted and no one told you what to do. We don’t know what happen next. We don’t know when this ends. how it gets, or if it gets worst first. We can’t predict geo-politics, oil prices or the next notification that turns your screen RED.
But there is some truth we do know.
Every time it felt like the end of the world, it wasn’t. not in 2008. Not in 2020. not today in 2026,or in the dozen crises in between. Every crash feels unique. the reasons keep changing. the fear doesn’t.
Look at the above table. These events hit like missiles to the Dalal street, cutting deep. But still the impact was minimal in the long term and the recovery proportionate to the fall.
Investors who lost the most where not the ones who stayed. They were the ones who left, the cost of selling at the bottom ,of re-entering after the recovery, is almost always greater than that of sitting with discomfort. These chills that are running down your spine? This is what earns returns.
Your brain is lying to you right now. it is telling you to wait for certainity. but markets never send a notification saying ‘the danger is over, invest now.’ It’s telling you to do something. Sell, pause, anything! Because action feels like control. But what you have lost is not money. It’s the feeling of control. And selling won’t give it back.
So what should you do? Not nothing. And not everything.
If you are running SIPs, don’t stop them. This is the moment they were designed for. Continuing to invest when it’s the hardest means buying more units at lower price.
If you have idle money, and 10 years. Put it to work. not all of it, not recklessly. The best days in market history have come within weeks of the worst days. You cannot capture one without the other.
If you are all in, know that this is not the first storm. It won’t be the last. Remind yourself that it is the calmer people who do better, not the smarter.
IF you are unsure, call your MF distributor or your advisor. if you’re lucky enough to have one. Their value is even greater in uncertain times. Their perspective will help to outlast the discomfort. And make decisions you won’t regret three years later.
If you must check your portfolio ,check it less. Your phone will not stop buying. Group chats will not stop panicking. NAV’s will not look good for a while . That’s not a failure of your plan. It’s what a plan looks like when it is being tested. Your only job right now? Let the plan keep working.
Does doing nothing works? One of the greatest investor, when asked how much he lost when stocks fell 50% in 2008, said ‘Nothing-because i did nothing.’ The markets recovered. He was still in them when they did.
You can’t do much about what happens next. but you can decide whether you will stay the course while those around you are losing nerve.
Staying is not comfortable.
Which is why, most people leave.
What about you?