Recently, I did something pretty hardcore: spent 163 hours digging into 36 years of MSCI ACWI global index data, and along the way, I dissected more than 20 historic market crashes like Black Monday, 9/11, the subprime crisis, the COVID crash, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

One rather sobering discovery: every time the market crashes, it feels like the end of the world and panic is at its peak. But when you zoom out to a 36-year timeline? All those deep pits have been filled in by subsequent gains—on the candlestick chart, you can’t even find scars from those years.

So in the end, making money isn’t about predicting black swans, but about understanding cycles and surviving through them. That’s just how the market works: it crashes, it rallies, over and over. The ones who can tough it out during the lows and know when to pull back at the highs are the ones who truly benefit from market cycles.

By the way, I also compiled 88 practical strategies from 8 classic investment books—all distilled wisdom from the masters after learning things the hard way. Highly recommend checking them out.