Tumultuous.
Volatile.
Exhilarating.
Terrifying.
Bewildering.
These are just a few adjectives that describe the market's behaviour over the past week.
The US government's new tariff policies have sent a chill through the investing world. Investors, both big and small, are worried about their portfolios getting haircuts and the world dipping into a recession.
The uncertainty is palpable.
No one knows what direction this is heading. One minute the market is nose-diving, the next it's soaring.
As I write this (end of trading day, April 9, 2025), the S&P500 and NASDAQ are up 10% and 12% on the day, respectively. That's trillions—yes, TRILLIONS—of dollars in added value in the span of 6.5 hours.
Meanwhile, a mere week ago, the S&P500 and NASDAQ had back to back 5%+ down days.
The rug keeps getting pulled out from beneath investors' feet:
Sure the markets are a good ways back to where they were before all the tariff nonsense—but for how long?
When's the next rug going to be pulled from under us?
Are there even any rugs left to pull?
What are we actually standing on anyway?
These questions are at the heart of the Buddhist concept of groundlessness.
Groundlessness teaches us that there is no solid ground beneath our feet. This is a deeply unsettling feeling. As humans, we crave certainty, permanence and security. So much so that we create it where it doesn't exist.
But life is just one big rug pull after another: pandemics, divorce, death, illness, tariffs, etc.
And yet we work so hard to convince ourselves otherwise. Only to be continually surprised and shocked when the trap door opens underneath our feet.
There's a lot of suffering that goes along with the denial of groundlessness.
Perhaps you've been tempted to get out of the market over the past week or two. Sell your holdings to prevent any further losses and to feel like you're standing on firm ground again.
But if you'd done just that on April 2nd or 3rd (and not bought immediately back in), you would've locked in possible double-digit losses to your portfolio. That's double-digit suffering.
Meanwhile, if you had just surfed the ups and downs of the market, embraced its groundlessness, you'd be fine. This is the name of the game when it comes to “passive investing.” Buying, holding and buying more regardless of what the market is doing.
Investing and the rest of life gives us one opportunity after another after another to embrace groundless and uncertainty. We need to embrace these opportunities. We need to let Donald Trump and his tariffs be our teacher.
As the venerable Joseph Goldstein says "let's not waste this suffering."
Yours in groundlessness,
- The Buddh-i$h Investor
Takehome points:
We like to think that we’re standing on firm ground in our lives. Humans crave certainty in an inherently uncertainty world.
But life continually “pulls the rug out” from under us in the form of death, illness, Trump’s tariffs, etc.
Denying the groundlessness of life causes suffering. Embracing groundlessness reduces suffering.