How to survive when stocks behave badly

Diversified index funds that reflect the market as a whole are a much less risky way to invest in stocks and bonds than buying individual securities.

Diversified index funds that reflect the market as a whole are a much less risky way to invest in stocks and bonds than buying individual securities. That's based on research by Hank Bessembinder, professor and Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Endowed Chair in Competitive Business, who evaluated lifetime returns to every U.S. common stock traded on the New York and American stock exchanges and the Nasdaq since 1926.

In this article published in The New York Times on Jan. 25, 2022:

Unlike Apple, roughly 96% of the securities in the U.S. stock market don’t earn money for investors at all over long periods, according to research by Hendrik Bessembinder, a professor of finance at Arizona State University. Professor Bessembinder has since found that in global markets, too, most stocks won’t earn you money over the long run.