Occasional bouts of extreme volatility are a known and expected feature of the stock market. Predicting when they occur or what specifically will set them off is another matter entirely.
Nothing in life is free — the price of being able to participate in the compounding nature of equity ownership is the occasional stretch of time with uncomfortable paper losses. Stocks have done very well over long periods of time precisely because of the "risk premium" they earn as compensation for these drawdowns...
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