<prompt> Human: You really cant miss the news about the global stock market crashing and how people are supposed to be losing their minds because China is plummeting, oil price is too volatile, futures are out of control, blah blah blah.If you really want to see how crazy this is making people, head over to rinvesting. Theres all sorts of threads with very intelligent posters talking about the hits theyve taken, how they are moving around their money, what stocks are undervalued, etc.Frankly, almost everything over there is nonsense for the average i.e., non-professional investor. These fundamental truths are why:1 The market, in the long term, gains an average about 7 per year after inflation. This holds true for every 50 year period since the stock market was invented in the 1800s. See this article on the stock markets returns in the 1900s: 2 You cannot predict the stock market or time the market. There is no right time to go in, there is no right time to pull out. Just keep investing and the truth in 1 will prove you right over the long term. This article from Investopedia explains why , and this quote is pertinent: If volatility and investors emotions were removed completely from the investment process, it is clear that passive, long-term 20 years or more investing without any attempts to time the market would be the superior choice. In reality, however, just like with a garden, a portfolio can be cultivated without compromising its passive nature. Historically, there have been some obvious dramatic turns in the market that have provided opportunities for investors to cash in or buy in. Taking cues from large updrafts and downdrafts, one could have significantly increased overall returns, and as with all opportunities in the past, hindsight is always 2020.Furthermore, heres a really good article on FiveThirtyEight today about the perils of those who think they can time the market: Imagine two people who each invested 1,000 in the SP 500 at the beginning of 1980. The first one buys once and never sells. The second one is slightly more cautious: He sells any time the market loses 5 percent in a week, and buys back in once it rebounds 3 percent from wherever it bottoms out. At the end of last week, the first investors holdings would be worth 18,635. The second investor would have just 10,613.3 80 of professional investors i.e., those who do this for 60-80 hours per week cannot time the stock market either. This is evidenced by 80 of actively managed funds failing to beat the SP 500 index over the course of 10 years. For the remaining 20 that do beat the market, they either a eventually lose to the market or b after fees, dont beat the market anyway. In fact, in a recent study, just 2 out of 380 actively managed funds beat the index after costs over the course of a 20 year period--and both of those eventually fell behind the index.4 The only reason you might want to move money around is to make sure your asset allocation is where you want it to be. Even that is a bit hard to do when the market is this volatile. Luckily, rpersonalfinance recommends passive investing: 1 invest in passive index funds, 2 keep costs low, 3 invest in an asset allocation thats appropriate for your ageretirement goals.The market goes up, the market goes down, big deal. Time in the market is incredibly more important than attempting to time the market. As anecdotal evidence, check out rinvesting--those who try to time the market are frantically researching everything and likely losing to a passive fund in the process.So I recommend the following:1 Invest in low-cost passive index funds See the sidebar for great articles.2 Develop an asset allocation that makes sense for you again, see the very helpful sidebar.3 Dont worry about todays or any other days dip--just keep investing. 4 Always remember this fundamental truth about investing: because so many people try and fail to time the market, being average at investing i.e., passively investing in low-cost index funds that represent the entire market puts you in about the 80th percentile of investors.Cheers. ETA: articles and corrections.  <response>: Because most of rpersonalfinance3 subscribes to the above advice, its crickets around here about the stock market. No its not - use the investing flair and sort by new, theres been loads of threads about it, both today and for the last few days. Theyre just not getting to the top of our front page because this isnt a sub for investing. rinvesting on the other hand is, which is why their front page is all about the crash.Also in all fairness, its more than a little naivedisingenuous to act like people dont post in both rpersonalfinance and rinvesting. Very likely those who are over there doing the things youre complainging about are also the same people who post on rpersonalfinance paying lip service to the stuff youre endorsing. 