I tend to be a buy and holder. I’ve owned and still own Berkshire Hathaway since the early 1990s. Until 2008 had TD shares for a couple decades. However, in 2008 I took my accounts and family accounts up to 85% cash. It was another 6 months before things bottomed out. I picked up more BRK a day off it’s low as everyone panicked. Bought cash rich Apple and some others near their lows. The point is, markets bounce on their way up and they bounce in their way down. Mild fear can become irrational fear.
Knowing how fall markets can fall also tempers ones overly optimistic views of investing. As a teenager one of the first books I read was the Great Crash by Galbraith (the economist). It took the market several years to fall to its about 80% drop from the peak (or whatever it was by 1933). Years later in the 1980s I bought Nikkei Put Warrants against Japan’s bubble not long before the Japanese peak and sold them a after a year or two later as their market declined. However I left a lot of money on the table because I couldn’t believe that such a massive market (2nd largest in the world) could fall 75% (and stay down for decades). There’s no guarantees in business. Investing in businesses carry risks.
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