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Brendan Gallagher, CFP®- Pinnacle Investments, LLC

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MARKET TURBULENCE

How to stay the course when the headlines get loud

If your phone notifications have felt louder than usual lately, you’re not imagining it. 

“Calls for the U.S. to annex Greenland”.1 “Civil unrest throughout the country”.2 “Talks of a new trade war with Europe”.3 “A criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve chair”.4 These are not the kind of headlines that inspire confidence in the markets.  

We saw that investors noticed. Stocks plunged, yields surged, and gold skyrocketed.5 

It’s a lot to take in. But before getting into any details, I want to start with the most important point: 

Most likely, nothing meaningful about your long-term financial life changed this week. Your goals are likely the same. Your timeline is likely the same. The reasons you invest are likely the same. 

What did change is how noisy the world feels. 

Here’s the thing: 

Human brains evolved to perceive danger. They’re not great at separating “many surprising headlines at once” from “something that permanently alters the future.” When uncertainty clusters, our nervous system treats it like a fire alarm. 

That reaction is normal. It’s ancient. In fact, it kept our ancestors alive. 

On the other hand, it is not a great barometer for portfolio decisions. 

Markets react to stories in the short-term. Fear. Confusion. Speculation. Narratives spread faster than facts. But on the long-term, markets care about slower, less dramatic things. Company profits. Interest rates. Inflation. Productivity. How much people spend and save. 

These forces move very gradually, while headlines move by the minute. 

This is why sharp market swings feel significant in the moment, but are often inconsequential in hindsight. Big moves make for dramatic charts and urgent commentary. Over a multi-year plan, they usually become a footnote. 

It’s like flying through turbulence. 

When a plane hits rough air, everything feels wrong. The cabin shakes. Drinks spill. Your body tenses up. It can feel dangerous, even when the aircraft itself is operating exactly as designed. 

Turbulence is uncomfortable. It’s loud, and it gets your attention. But it is not the same thing as the plane being in trouble. 

Volatility works the same way in markets. It isn’t a sign that something is broken, it’s the price investors pay for long-term growth. 

If markets were calm all the time, they’d offer much lower returns. You can’t separate higher returns from uncertainty any more than you can separate a smooth flight from the possibility of rough air. 

The real risk during weeks like this isn’t what the market does next. 

It’s what people do next. 

When fear is high, people get tempted to do very (seemingly) rational things. Sell to stop the discomfort. Sit on the sidelines waiting for clarity. Chase whatever just went up. Rewrite long-term plans based on a fresh emotional reaction to sudden, sensational news. 

Those decisions may feel protective in the moment, but a clear look at history shows us many examples to demonstrate that this is often how long-term returns get damaged. 

Your financial plan should be built with weeks like last week in mind. 

Not because volatility is pleasant, but because it’s inevitable. 

Every decade has its version of “this feels unprecedented.” The early 2000s had terror attacks. The late 2000s had a financial crisis. The 2020s opened with a pandemic and an inflation shock. Each period felt unstable while we were living through it. Markets kept compounding anyway. Progress is uneven at times, but it still persists.

The things that most influence your financial future are still firmly in your control. How much you save. How diversified you are. How much risk you take relative to your goals. How disciplined you remain when emotions run hot. How long you stay invested. 

Those quiet decisions matter far more than any single week of headlines. 

If you ever feel uneasy during periods like this, that’s human. You don’t need to suppress it! Just don’t let it take the driver’s seat. 

Markets will always have moments of turbulence. That’s part of the journey. 

The goal isn’t to eliminate every bump in the air – it’s to stay safely buckled in your seat, trust the design of the plane, and keep moving in the direction of where you actually want to go.