What Should You Do With Your Investments if the Stock Market Crashes? This 1 Move Is Key.

Schwab research found that missing the S&P 500’s 10 best-performing days from 2005–2024 would have reduced annualized returns from 10.3% to 6.1%, about 40% lower. The article argues investors should avoid market timing and continue holding or buying a diversified stock portfolio through bear markets. It notes the S&P 500 is up about 12% in 2026 and Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF returned about 15.3% annualized over the past 10 years.

Analysis

The article offers behavioral guidance, not a market-timing signal. Its historical “missed best days” framing is incomplete for portfolio decisions: sharp rebounds often occur near sharp selloffs, so the result does not establish that remaining fully invested is optimal for every investor, mandate, or liquidity horizon. The useful implication is narrower: discretionary de-risking after volatility rises can create execution and re-entry risk.

Second-order flow effects could cut both ways. Routine dip-buying and passive contributions may cushion ordinary pullbacks; a sustained drawdown, however, can trigger mechanical selling by trend-following and volatility-targeting strategies, potentially amplifying moves before long-horizon investors’ buying absorbs supply. That is a conditional market-structure risk, not evidence of current positioning. The article provides no positioning, valuation, earnings, or liquidity data to judge its magnitude.

Near term, this is not a catalyst for a directional position. Over 1–3 months, watch breadth, realized volatility, fund flows, and whether systematic strategies are reducing exposure. Over 6–18 months, the consequential question is whether earnings and cash flows validate equity valuations; a buy-and-hold message cannot offset fundamental multiple compression. The contrarian point: staying invested may be sensible for investors with long horizons and adequate liquidity, but treating it as universal can overlook concentration, spending needs, and mandate constraints.

Key Decisions for Investors

• No trade on this article alone; it contains no new fundamental or positioning evidence. Avoid converting generic historical return statistics into a near-term market call.
• For existing broad-equity exposure, use scheduled rebalancing rather than discretionary all-in/all-out timing. Confirm liquidity needs and portfolio concentration before adding risk; VOO is a possible broad-market vehicle only where that exposure fits the mandate.
• Set an alert, not a trade: monitor breadth, realized volatility, and trend-following or volatility-control flow estimates over the next 1–3 months. A sustained deterioration alongside earnings-guidance cuts would weaken the case for simply buying every dip.
• Falsify a defensive thesis if earnings expectations stabilize, market breadth improves, and volatility recedes; falsify a dip-buying thesis if weakness broadens and estimates continue to fall. The article supplies none of these confirming data.