Vanguard Global All-Cap ETF jumps to €180m in AUM (updated with Distributing and Accumulating Share Classes) & Women and Wealth

History shows that reacting emotionally to market turmoil is rarely the right move. Panic selling, driven by loss aversion and herd mentality, often leads to locking in losses and missing out on eventual recoveries. The urge to avoid further losses can be so strong that it overrides long-term investment plans, causing investors to make decisions they later regret.

Enter the IPS: not just paperwork, but your battle plan Enter the Investment Policy Statement (IPS): not just paperwork, but your battle plan. It defines your goals, pins down your risk tolerance, and hands you clear rules for stormy markets—no matter how “unprecedented” they may feel. By acknowledging that market downturns and periods of uncertainty are inevitable, an IPS helps investors prepare emotionally and financially for the rough patches. By staying focused on long-term objectives and maintaining a diversified portfolio, investors can weather the storms of uncertainty and emerge stronger on the other side.

Ready to build your IPS? Here’s what to consider—and how often to revisit it. Let’s jump in.

So you have read our comprehensive review of Interactive Brokers (affectionately abbreviated IBKR or even IB by its users) and you have decided to open an account. This guide will walk you through the steps of the process. In some ways, this broker account opening process can be longer than for other brokers. That’s because IBKR is more sophisticated. But, we make this process a bit simpler. In the end going through it is worth the hassle given the benefits the broker may give you in the long run. Let’s get started!

If bonds no longer reliably zig when stocks zag, perhaps the traditional balanced portfolio no longer works.

But that conclusion rests on a simplistic reading of a single statistic. Correlation describes whether two assets tend to move in the same direction, but it says nothing about the size of those moves or whether they help or hurt investors. Stocks and bonds can be positively correlated because they are both rising (good news) or because they are both falling (bad news).

The 60/40 portfolio was never designed around the idea that bonds would offset every stock market decline. Its purpose is to combine two assets with different risk characteristics to create a smoother investment experience. The objective of diversification isn’t to avoid periodic losses. Those are an unavoidable part of investing. The real goal is to reduce the severity of those short-term losses so investors can remain committed to their long-term plan through difficult markets.