>Suddenly you're down 20-25% over 6 months and people start to say "oh crap, we're in a recession". But really, at that point you've been in the recession for s

>Suddenly you're down 20-25% over 6 months and people start to say "oh crap, we're in a recession". But really, at that point you've been in the recession for six months. This is exactly why panic selling is such a bad idea. By the time you're panicking, it's too late. If you actually panic early enough to time the market, you're more likely to be freaking out over a fluctuation and lose out on more gains.