The Motley Fool advises investors to review speculative stocks and portfolio allocations, plan purchases for a downturn and avoid trying to time the bottom. Schwab data cited in the article show that six of 27 S&P 500 corrections since 1974 became bear markets.
The article says lower-quality, hype-driven stocks may not recover alongside the wider market. It also says strong recent performance may leave portfolios overweight technology and energy and income investors underweight utilities, and suggests reassessing corporate and government bonds as persistent inflation has pushed interest rates to multiyear highs.
Hartford figures cited in the article put bear markets at roughly once every three years since 1929, lasting just under a year and cutting the S&P 500 by about 35% on average. The article says the current bull market has had two corrections so far, with the latest taking shape in March 2025.
