![\"Why](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Why-54-Is-All-You-Need-to-Be-a-Great-Investor-or-Tennis-Champion-e1781232899772.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A client emailed me recently after a rough week in the markets. She’s a new DIY investor, still getting used to watching her portfolio in real time for the first time after years of never even logging into her old managed accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been checking the app almost daily \u2013 maybe not a good thing,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWould you say these recent losses are normal? I imagine we just keep plugging along as usual, but when might be a time to change what we are doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s such an honest question, and I appreciated her asking it. Because yes, checking daily is probably not a good thing<\/a>, and yes, the losses are completely normal, and yes, you keep plugging along \u2013 and I want to explain why, because \u201cjust trust the process<\/a>\u201d isn’t really a satisfying answer.<\/p>\n The odds are already in your favour<\/p>\n Some people think the stock market is a casino, and I understand why it feels that way when you’re watching your balance swing up and down week to week. But the casino analogy actually makes the argument for staying invested, not against it, as long as you understand which side of the table you’re on.<\/p>\n When you bet red or black at a roulette table, the house wins about 53% of the time \u2013 a tiny edge created by two green zero pockets that don’t pay out. That’s it. That small, persistent advantage is what funds every casino on the planet.<\/p>\n The stock market has its own version of this edge. Analysis of S&P 500 data<\/a> going back to 1999 shows the market finished up on about 54% of trading days and down on 46%.<\/p>\n Crestmont Research<\/a> has tracked the same figure over more than 50 years and arrives at 53.7%. That’s barely better than a coin flip on any given day, but it’s a real and consistent edge, and over decades it compounds into something extraordinary.<\/p>\n Why the days you miss matter so much<\/p>\n The temptation when markets get scary is to step aside and wait for things to settle down. The problem is that the best days and the worst days tend to cluster together, which means investors who sell during downturns frequently miss the recovery entirely.<\/p>\n Research from Hartford Funds<\/a> found that missing just the 10 best trading days over a recent 30-year period would have cut your returns in half. Missing the 30 best days would have reduced your returns by 84%.<\/p>\n And, get this: 76% of the market’s best days occurred either during a bear market or in the first two months of a new bull market, which is precisely when most people have already bailed.<\/p>\n
![\"Print](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/printfriendly-pdf-button-nobg-md.png\")