How to Survive When Stocks Behave Badly

The stock market’s swings have been startling. Unfortunately, it’s wise to prepare for much worse.

Where is the stock market heading? That can be an urgent question — especially when you’re losing money in a fickle market.

As the wild stock market swings that started the week demonstrated, no one knows where the market is going, not hour by hour or day by day. What’s more, no one on Wall Street has been able to predict reliably where the market will be next month or next year, though plenty of people are constantly trying to do so.

Really, we’re all in the dark, and when stocks are shaky, that’s not a pleasant place to be. Yet there are compelling reasons to stay in the market.