An old joke goes - a statistician is a person who lays with his head in an oven and his feet in a freezer happily proclaiming “On average, I feel comfortable.”

Taking that example into the investment world, averages seldom reflect actual investor experience.

You’ve probably experienced that wave of relief before, when you manage to narrowly avoid a disaster. Now that the market is very choppy, it makes sense to take a step back, assess your investments and perhaps take some extra precautions — after all downturns are only a matter of time.

You’ve done everything right: You’ve set a long investment horizon to ensure positive returns, and reduced your equity allocation to make room for bonds to absorb shocks in the market. So what should one do when the invested assets suddenly don’t seem to behave anymore?

Panic selling not only locks in your losses but also puts you at risk for missing the market’s best days, and the impact of missing just a few of the market’s best days can be profound

Close calls, their consequential behavioural biases, periods of volatility, and some tips to attain some peace of mind.