Market ups and downs not only move prices, they also move emotions.
When indices reach historical highs, many investors wonder if they are arriving “late.” When markets fall, fear of further losses appears… and the temptation to sell.
The uncomfortable reality is that no one knows what markets will do tomorrow. But what we do know, from experience and historical data, is that a disciplined, diversified, and long-term strategy is usually much more effective than reacting to every headline.
In this article, we explore some key ideas for investing with more confidence in any market environment… and how they fit into the inbestMe model.
1. Stay Calm (Even if the Headlines Aren’t)
Market declines are a natural part of investing. They are unpleasant, yes, but they are not an anomaly: they are the price we pay for the possibility of achieving returns above inflation over the long term. Think of declines as the toll you pay to achieve market returns.
Making decisions in the heat of the moment is usually costly:
- Selling in the middle of a decline locks in losses and can leave you out of the subsequent recovery.
- Entering euphorically after a big rise may mean buying at very high prices.
The alternative is less exciting but much wiser: define an investment plan according to your risk profile and stick to it, regardless of short-term noise.
At inbestMe, the entire process (MiFID test, portfolio allocation, automatic rebalancing) is designed precisely to help you avoid making emotional decisions in the worst moments, and instead act within an objective framework.
2. Don’t Try to Time the Market
“Market timing,” trying to hit the best entry or exit moments, is very tempting in theory and very destructive in practice. Market timing is riskier than it appears.
The best and worst market days often occur very close together: missing just a few of the best days can significantly reduce your long-term returns.
In other words, trying to be “in” on good days and “out” on bad days is nearly impossible, even for professionals. For individual investors, it usually results in:
- Selling after a drop.
- Buying after a rise.
In fact, a Vanguard study illustrates this well: when analyzing market performance, the 20 best days and the 20 worst days appear almost back-to-back. This means major rebounds usually occur very close to major drops. Trying to exit before the bad days and re-enter just before the good days is, in practice, nearly impossible. That is why attempting market timing is far less effective than simply staying invested and letting time work in your favor.
The index-based management philosophy we apply at inbestMe goes in the opposite direction: always being efficiently invested, with low costs, instead of trying to guess the next market move.
The important thing is to follow our plan regardless of what the markets do.
3. Invest Periodically
Making periodic contributions (monthly, quarterly…) is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to invest calmly:
- You buy more shares when prices are low.
- You buy fewer shares when prices are high.
In practice, this smooths your average entry price and reduces the emotional weight of deciding “when” to invest. This approach—average cost or “euro-cost averaging” (from “dollar-cost averaging”)—is especially useful in an uncertain environment or when markets are near highs.
At inbestMe, it also has clear operational advantages:
- You can automate a periodic contribution from your bank account, directly from your bank, or using a simple recurring transfer.
- In index fund portfolios, transfers between funds can be made without tax impact, which facilitates portfolio rebalancing without paying taxes and, therefore, optimized over time.
At inbestMe, you can automate these contributions so that discipline does not depend on your mood and does not compromise the success of your investment plan.
4. Use the Goal Forecaster to Focus on What You Can Control
One of the best ways to invest calmly is to stop obsessing over what we cannot control (short-term market movements) and focus on what is within our hands:
- How much you can contribute initially.
- How much you can save each month.
- How much time you have until your target date.
- The level of risk you are willing to take.
The inbestMe goal forecaster is designed precisely for this. It is a tool integrated into all client accounts; you just need to activate it as shown above. Instead of only thinking about whether the market is “expensive” or “cheap” right now, you start from a specific goal:
- “I want to accumulate X € for my children’s university in year Y.”
- “I want to reach a supplementary income of Z € at retirement, and for that, I need to accumulate X €.”
- “I want to save for a home down payment in N years.”
Simply give the goal a name, enter the amount to reach, and taking into account the current value and periodic contributions, as well as your account profile (and expected return/volatility), the simulator shows you different probable evolution scenarios, with ranges of results and an estimated probability of success.
This has several key advantages:
- Translates investing into the language of goals, not indices or headlines.
- Helps you see whether your plan is realistic… and what you would need to adjust (more time or more one-off or recurring contributions).
- Reinforces the idea that your main lever is not guessing the market, but being consistent with contributions and focusing on the time horizon, not what happens today.
In summary, the simulator gives you back control: instead of asking “what will the market do?”, the question becomes “what do I need to do to maximize the probability of achieving my goal?”
5. Separa tus objetivos en distintas “carteras mentales”
Not all your financial goals are the same: saving for a vacation next year is not the same as saving for retirement in 25 years. Mixing everything into a single “pool” of money complicates decisions and creates more anxiety.
It makes much more sense to segregate goals and treat them differently:
Your emergency fund, which should cover at least 6 to 9 months of expenses for unforeseen events.
- A short-term goal (1–3 years) — for example, a home down payment — should assume less risk and have lower acceptable volatility.
- A long-term goal (retirement, children’s education, legacy) can assume more equities because it will have more time to recover from declines.
With inbestMe, this translates into something very concrete:
- You can have different portfolios or goals: for example, “retirement,” “children,” “home down payment,” “round-the-world trip,” etc.
- Each goal can have its own risk profile, time horizon, and contribution plan, defined with the goal Forecaster.
Mentally, it is much clearer: you know which portfolio is associated with which purpose, and it is easier to stick to the plan even when the market moves.
Segregating goals helps you make better decisions because each decision is made in the correct context. A 10% drop in a portfolio for 20 years from now is not the same as in a 2-year goal.
6. Build a Globally Diversified Portfolio
Diversification is the basic tool for managing risk intelligently:
- Combining equities and fixed income helps cushion declines.
- Diversifying by region (USA, Europe, emerging markets…) reduces the impact of problems in a specific geographic area.
- Including different types of bonds (government, corporate, different terms and qualities) adds diversification and some stability.
Historical data shows that in periods when the stock market performed poorly, high-quality fixed income often acted as a buffer.
inbestMe portfolios are built precisely with this spirit:
- Broad global diversification via index funds (and/or ETFs).
- Different risk profiles, from very conservative to very aggressive (100% equities).
- Optional inclusion of ESG criteria (socially responsible investing) without departing from indexing for those who wish to include sustainable assets in their investment.
Diversification—the proper distribution and optimization of assets—is the only real “free strategy”: it allows us to aim for higher returns at the same level of risk or lower risk for the same target return.
7. Focus on the Long Term (Declines Are Normal)
If you look at any global equity index with sufficient perspective, you will see a succession of crises, recessions, and bear markets (in red in the chart above)… and yet a clearly upward long-term trend (in blue) in the chart above.
In the chart above, for example, the S&P 500 has experienced multiple bear markets (declines over 20% from highs) since the 1950s and still generated significant positive returns for those who stayed invested for decades, because markets, although they fall fast, rise more and for longer periods.
The key is not to avoid all declines (which is impossible), but to:
- Choose a risk level you can tolerate.
- Maintain it over time, regardless of headlines.
- Let compound interest do its work.
At inbestMe, the recommended minimum time horizon for each risk profile is designed precisely to help the investor “fly over” the inevitable bumps in the road. The general rule is easy to understand: the longer the horizon, the more risk you can take, and more risk (more equities) means higher expected returns.
Separating short- and medium-term goals allows you to maximize long-term objectives with better overall investment performance.
8. Historical Highs Are Not an Automatic Danger Signal
Being at historical highs does not mean “it can only go down.” In fact, in major stock indices, in the years following a high, new highs often occur. As seen in the table above, markets rise for an average of 5.5 years, accumulating an average of 192% (table associated with the previous chart, taking the S&P 500 as an example and excluding the new ongoing bull cycle). This is much longer than bear cycles, which last 1.1 years and decline on average by -35%.
A historical high is simply the highest point to date. The current bull cycle has lasted 3.1 years with a 91% cumulative gain. In long-term growing markets, it is normal for new highs to be reached over time.
The real risk is not “investing at highs,” but concentrating decisions at a single moment, without a plan, diversification, or an appropriate time horizon.
That is why even when global indices are strong, it makes sense to:
- Maintain periodic contributions.
- Respect your risk profile.
- Stay globally diversified.
inbestMe Offers a Different Way to Relate to Your Investments
Ultimately, inbestMe’s proposal is to allow you to have a different and well-organized relationship with your investments. We propose a formula that, if put into practice, should allow you to invest with total confidence in any market environment.
In the end, investing with confidence is not about predicting the next market move, but focusing on what you can decide: what goals you have, how long you want to achieve them, how much you can save, and what level of risk lets you sleep peacefully.
inbestMe’s approach is precisely that: putting your investments on autopilot; helping you turn vague ideas (“save more,” “prepare for retirement,” “do something for the kids”) into concrete goals, with their own portfolio, horizon, and realistic contribution plan. The goal forecaster, the ability to separate objectives into different portfolios, and automated index fund management bring order where there were only intuitions and good intentions before.
Markets will continue to rise and fall, there will be historical highs and corrections, alarmist headlines, and euphoric streaks. What makes the difference is not anticipating everything, but having a system that allows you to keep moving forward anyway. If your investment decisions are aligned with your life goals and supported by a disciplined and automated process, every market movement stops being a threat and simply becomes part of the journey.
