[PB Notebook] Unwavering Investing Blooms - Long-Term Investing and Dollar-Cost Averaging

In order to end the war between the United States and Iran that began on February 28, 2026, a historic event took place: the first high-level talks between the two countries in 47 years. Despite 21 hours of negotiations, the talks ended without any results, leaving both sides waiting for a second round of negotiations. Although many find comfort in the belief that this event will eventually come to an end, it is a fact that market anxiety remains unresolved. In times like these, investors always fall into deep contemplation: “Is this moment an opportunity, or a risk to be avoided?” To find the answer, let us revisit the crises that have hit the market since 2000.

Seunghyun Kim, Head of Gold PB Team at Hana Bank Yongsan PB Center

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Since the 2000s, the global stock market has experienced four major crises. Let us look back on how severe each shock was, and how long the recovery took in each case.

① The Dot-com Bubble Burst (2000~2002) S&P 500 maximum decline: -49%. A transformation as significant as the Industrial Revolution arrived, but as a result, the market struggled for three years. However, starting with a rebound in 2003, the index broke through its all-time high in about seven years.

② Global Financial Crisis (2008~2009) S&P 500 maximum decline: -57%. The fear of a financial system collapse unprecedented in a century swept over the market. Ten years after the bottom, the index had risen more than 300% from its low.

③ COVID-19 Pandemic (2020): A sharp drop of -34% in just 33 days. It was the fastest decline in history, but the recovery was also the fastest ever. In just five months, the index regained its previous high, and by the end of the following year, it had more than doubled from the bottom.

④ U.S.-Iran War and Breakdown of Negotiations (as of 2026): Nuclear negotiations collapsed, and Iran declared the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The possibility of resuming talks and the magnitude of the aftermath from the war remain uncertain. However, upon the U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark that Iran also wants negotiations, the S&P 500 rebounded to pre-war levels, and the semiconductor sector, which supports the domestic index, is approaching its previous high. In other words, those who did not leave the market at its lowest point ultimately enjoyed the greatest recovery.

Looking at these four crises, it is easy to observe that when the most pessimistic news dominated the market, the exodus of individual investors peaked, but some quietly increased their allocation to investment assets. A decade later, the gap in wealth between these two groups was not determined by who had better information, but by who stayed in the market longer.

Systematic investing-regularly buying at intervals-is a mechanism that turns this lesson into daily investment behavior. By consistently investing a fixed amount on a set date each month, you accumulate more shares when the market is down. Instead of worrying about whether the market has hit bottom, you turn the market’s ups and downs into opportunities to build wealth. For example, an investor who invested one million won every month for ten years from the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis had more than double the asset value at the end of 2019 compared to someone who simply put the same amount into a savings account. The difference was not due to extraordinary stock picking skills or an ability to predict the market. It was the discipline of not stopping contributions even when stock prices were halved.

When a crisis hits, even experts find it extremely difficult to predict the market’s short-term direction. However, the way to achieve stable and consistent returns is not short-term forecasting, but long-term patience and steady investing. If you feel anxious about the current market, that is a natural reaction. However, rather than changing all your decisions because of this anxiety, it is important to revisit the principles you initially set. While market conditions will continue to change, the principles of long-term investing and systematic purchasing remain largely unchanged. If you continue to invest steadily in today’s complex market, I believe the results will surely bloom like flowers in spring. I sincerely hope that warm and beautiful spring days will come to each and every one of your accounts.

Seunghyun Kim, Head of Gold PB Team at Hana Bank Yongsan PB Center

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