How panic sneaks in during volatile markets

The triple check spiral in volatile markets

Bearry sat at his desk in the Stoxcraft HQ lounge. His screen was glowing red.

QQQ down 3.4 percent. AAPL (Apple) dropping. Even his broad ETF was slipping.

He checked his app. Again. Switched to charts. Then to Reddit. Then to financial news.

No real headlines. No clear cause. Just market jitters and a lot of comments in all caps.

It wasn’t panic exactly. More like the creeping sense that if he didn’t act now, he’d regret it later.

Bullma walked in with a coffee. She took one look at Bearry and raised an eyebrow.

“How many times have you refreshed?”

“Just checking the situation,” Bearry muttered. He opened another chart.

“Could be a rotation. Or a correction. Maybe I should...”

She sat down beside him. Calm. Focused. “Or maybe you walk through the checklist first.”

Bearry paused. He knew which one she meant. They had written it together a few weeks ago, back when everything felt stable.

Checklist for staying calm

Bearry scrolled back to his notes. His ETF was long-term. Diversified.

He had built it for exactly this kind of turbulence.

His rules said no rebalancing until a 10% drawdown. He wasn’t even close.

If Bullma hadn’t stepped in, he probably would have sold right into the dip.

Locked in a loss. Broken the logic of his setup because the screen looked scary for a moment.

And worst of all, he might have jumped into something riskier just to feel like he was back in control.

He looked at the checklist again. That was the real difference. It wasn’t made during panic.

It was made when his head was clear and his plan still made sense.

Lesson unlocked:

1. Urgency ≠ signal. Most red screens are noise, not strategy shifts.
2. Checklists beat panic. Pre-set rules cut through the urge to react.
3. Decisions made calm beat decisions made scared.

Volatility creates urgency that feels real but rarely is.

A simple checklist can stop reactive moves before they break your strategy.

Think you can spot panic before it takes over? Test it in the quiz.

Next up: the shift from trader to investor.