EXPECT UP AND DOWN TRENDS

People purchase stocks in the hope or belief that the stock price will go up. In our dogged attempts to -ride the upward trends, any investment loss generally comes as an unwelcome surprise.
In reality, however, market cycles-the highs and the lows-should be expected. In more than forty years of tracking the performance of stocks and bonds, investment professionals have made one thing clear: What goes up must come down, and vice versa.
The cycles experienced but stocks and bonds characterize every investment, from money markets to real estate. Such ups and downs would make perfect sense to King Solomon, who referred to a “day of prosperity” and a “day of adversity” (Eccles. 7: 14) and wrote that there is a time for everything-from mourning to dancing (See Eccles. 3:1, 4). As investors, we must be prepared for both scenarios.