Experts Warn Against Timing the Dip as S&P 500 Nears Correction
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- S&P 500 fell 1.67% on Friday to a seven-month low of 6,368.85, with the Dow dropping nearly 800 points and the Nasdaq sliding 2.15%, putting the index roughly 9% below its 52-week intraday high and near correction territory.
- CFP Joon Um of Secure Tax and Accounting warned that timing the market is 'really hard' and told investors experiencing FOMO that 'missing one dip won't hurt you, but making an emotional decision might.'
- CFP Jon Ulin of Ulin & Co. Wealth Management recommended dollar-cost averaging fixed amounts over three to four months and maintaining 'dry powder' for buying opportunities within a diversified portfolio, not single stocks, gold, or bitcoin.
- President Trump posted on Truth Social that 'great progress has been made' in Iran negotiations but threatened to destroy Iran's oil infrastructure if a peace deal doesn't happen 'shortly,' while separately telling the WSJ he was willing to end the war even if the Strait of Hormuz remained mostly closed.
- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered comments Monday that briefly calmed investor fears about an interest rate hike triggered by rising energy prices, though the S&P 500 still closed lower on the day.
- JPMorgan Asset Management research cited in the piece found that the market's best-performing days often closely follow the worst, creating a cost for investors who wait on the sidelines for clarity that 'rarely arrives.'
Why it matters: With the S&P 500 just one percentage point shy of a formal correction, the buy-the-dip calculus is no longer theoretical for retail investors sitting on cash. Advisors are pushing back against emotional buying, recommending dollar-cost averaging over 3-4 months and a diversified approach — a framework that could spare investors the trap of deploying lump sums into a conflict-driven slide.
