As long as the US dollar is the reserve currency there will be an upward bias to US equities. So, what goes up does not necessarily go down. But the upward trend is not a straight line. Many end up buying high and selling low. What has worked for me has been to decide on a distribution of equities and fixed income and other assets such as real estate. The idea is to have some orthogonality to the portfolio. For many years I was aggressive with equities, as I've gotten older, I reduced my exposure and at 70 I fixed it to 50% to keep up with inflation. I periodically rebalance to maintain the 50% equities. If the market gets really frothy or depressed, I may do an additional rebalance. I have about 5-10% in a brokerage account to have fun with and while I often pick losers or mediocre stocks, every now and then having one do >10 fold can put a smile on my face. Most importantly, I sleep well at night.
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