Stock Market on Your Mind?

Column distributed by Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Links to resources referenced:

Yahoo Finance
- https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history/?period1=1767290270&period2=1779380374
  - Related column excerpt:
    - “Since the beginning of 2026, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index opened at 6,878.11 on Jan. 2, slid to a closing low (for the year to date) of 6,343.72 on March 30, then reached an all-time high of 7,501.24 on May 14, falling back to 7,445.72 by May 21 -- and through all of this commotion, the S&P 500 rose 8.3% year to date.”
J.P. Morgan Asset Management: Guide to Retirement 2026
- https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/retirement-insights/guide-to-retirement/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16093056841&gbraid=0AAAAAoZiH-itzpBjtAdwlhjpKnKjYSak2&gclid=CjwKCAjw2rrQBhBuEiwAarLWHVVqCWRvq8Zlto_Xgw5wo_rdUyI7UHnq8foo8TerLPTOAcIyEZ5mAhoCVAsQAvD_BwE
  - Related column excerpt:
    - “There is no better way to gauge the effect of up and down movements than to review what happens if you miss ‘best days’ during a period of time. As the J.P. Morgan 2026 Guide to Retirement points out, six of the best 10 days in the stock market between Jan. 2, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2025, occurred within two weeks of the 10 worst days. Notably, if you missed the 20 best days during that time period, your return would be 3.8% instead of 11%. That illustrates the effect of intra-year volatility -- a phenomenon that is very much a part of stock market history.”
Citi Wealth: “Is Bias Impacting Your Investment Decisions?”
- https://marketinsights.citi.com/Financial-Education/Investing/Is-Bias-Impacting-Your-Investment-Decisions.html
  - Related column excerpt:
    - “The question is, does market movement affect your investment decisions? Could you potentially be acting based on a bias – a ‘tendency to favor or oppose something based only on a partial assessment of its merits,’ quoting the Citi Wealth article ‘Is Bias Impacting Your Investment Decisions?’”
Morningstar: “Busting biases in volatile times”
- https://www.morningstar.com.au/personal-finance/busting-biases-in-volatile-times
- Related column excerpt:
  - “What biases might come into play should the market take a sharp downturn, something we haven’t experienced since the Coronavirus decline in 2020, when we saw a very rapid decline of 34% in the S&P 500 Index over a period of five weeks. At the time, the global financial services company Morningstar offered ‘a behavioral checklist for investors facing turbulent markets,’ featuring six key points that are worth reviewing now, just in case:”

Investor.gov: Risk Tolerance
- https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/risk-tolerance
  - Related column excerpt:
    - “Also make sure you understand your tolerance for risk, described by Investor.gov as a person’s ‘ability and willingness to lose some or all of an investment in exchange for greater potential returns.’”
University of Missouri: Division of Applied Social Sciences
- https://cafnr.missouri.edu/divisions/division-of-applied-social-sciences/research/investment-risk-tolerance-assessment/
  - Related column excerpt:
    - “To gauge your tolerance, try the University of Missouri’s Investment Risk Tolerance Assessment, which uses more than 20 questions to determine your inclination toward risk.”