Whilst I was away...

... the global stock markets went mental, thanks to Trump and his insane tariffs. April 2025 was one of the most volatile months in the US stock market since the Great Depression(!) And with the US being the world's largest (and most watched) economy, the ripples of uncertainty spread to stock markets around the world - resulting in a global uncertainty crisis of the world's stock markets.

I can understand (sort of) the general reasoning that Trump has - imposing tariffs on foreign-imported goods in order to favour cheaper domestic production instead. In a mutually exclusive trade world, this might favour the US economy. There's just one huge issue - trade is now so interconnected, so globalised, that imposing such tariffs is like shooting yourself in the foot. The American people will be the end-users who pay for the tariffs through higher goods prices, plus this whole debacle risks a global trade war. Many countries (most notably China) have matched the tariffs, putting even more uncertainty on global trade.

The end result has been some crazy stock market turbulence. In the first 8 days of April, the S&P500 (which tracks the value of the 500 largest companies in the US), dropped by more than 10%, only for it to gradually recover again in the second half of the month. Trillions of dollars were traded, but after all this, the net result at month's end was a near-zero gain/loss. I just hope that you maintained discipline and remained in the market.

S&P 500 index for the month of April 2025, which was one of the mosts volatile months since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Such volatility is a severe test of one's mental fortitude, stretching our discipline to the absolute max. Such events are impossible to predict though - firstly Trump's tariff announcement (which shocked the world), and then the day-by-day market volatility which followed, with swings of several percentage points on stock markets around the world a result of the smallest of things - such as online rumours on what the Trump administration would do next (often will little to no factual basis) spreading like wildfire.

By continuing to dollar-cost-average into the market, you should be able to smooth out this market volatility in your long-term investment returns anyway. And if you're ever let into a haze of uncertainty due to particularly volatile stock market and are thinking of selling, remember that investing is a long-term game. You need to think 10+ years down the road when investing. If you don't have this mindset then you shouldn't be investing in the first place.

Legendary investor Warren Buffet once said: “The market may drop 50%, but I won’t sell. If you can’t handle seeing your investments fall 50% without panic, you shouldn’t be in the market.” This reflects Buffett’s view that volatility is not a risk if you’re investing in fundamentally strong businesses with a long-term horizon. He believes true investors should expect and tolerate market downturns without reacting emotionally.

So there you go, a touch of wisdom from one of the great investors.

That's not to say that I didn't react with some degree of concern about the market volatility last month. But not for one minute did I consider selling - I'm in this for the long game. In the meantime, I've remained as chilled out as I can and enjoyed life.