2-minute read
What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever received?
My sisters once convinced me to use a natural hair highlighting product. I aimed for Ryan Gosling but received a D- version of Prince Harry.
Setting your sights on the hot guy in every movie seems a bit lofty in retrospect.
He’s out of my league as it turns out.
I just realized I’ve been giving a piece of advice that’s perhaps as bad.
What’s that?
Telling people to block out the noise when the market is falling.
Is that bad advice or just unrealistic advice?
Fair point. It’s well intentioned and silly all at once.
Seems to be bit noisy these days, eh?
Well here are the daily returns in the S&P 500 in April so far:[1]
I think that’s what they call volatility.
April 3-4 marked the 5th largest 2-day drop for the S&P in 80 years. Other historical examples include events like Covid, the Great Financial Crisis, and Black Monday.[2]
But how ‘bout that April 9th bounce?!
That bounce was the 3rd best for the index ever. The NASDAQ was up even more at 12.16%. This was its 2nd best day ever in its 50+ year history.[3]
Sheesh!
And all of that leads to this:[4]
There’s the noise we all know and love.
You want talking heads on cable television? We got it. You want the algorithm to feed you a Liberation Day story? Eat up. You want tariff memes not so quietly nestled between gender reveals? Social media will take care of that!
So if we can’t tune out the noise, what’s there to do? Are we all just submissive captives to this “entertainment”?
First, keep in mind that the finance expert on TV/Twitter/YouTube has no idea who you are. You can’t have a meaningful conversation with that person. Find someone in your life who you think is level-headed and have an adult conversation.
You’re telling me MoneyMan2000 on Twitter isn’t a good friend of mine?
Next, do you best to limit your exposure. Does the news really need to be on in the background while doing the dishes? Is it really a crime if I lock myself out of my brokerage account for a month or two? Technology does actually have some control mechanisms.
I’ve heard worse ideas.
25-year-old me feels stupid for telling folks to tune it all out. Though almost a decade later I can confidently say that you can put it in timeout. It’s not easy, but wretched markets never are.
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[1] Source: https://www.investing.com/indices/us-spx-500-historical-data
[2] Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/p-500-just-did-something-102200060.html
[3] Source: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/investing/global-stock-market-reciprocal-tariffs-hnk-intl/index.html#:~:text=US%20stocks%20immediately%20surged%2C%20posting,S%26P%20500%20shot%20up%209.52%25.
[4] Sources: https://barrettmedia.com/2025/04/07/cnbc-sees-nearly-50-ratings-jump-after-donald-trump-declared-liberation-day-on-tariffs/ & https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/fox-news-youtube-views-q1-2025/ & https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trumps-tariff-whiplash-sparks-meme-storm-and-online-economics-lessons?srsltid=AfmBOorbGd4MlywwVxJ3_3E-wBkLRB7xBCVjIwnB9n2ciCe_vLWQDqHo