I'm seeing elsewhere people kind of panicking...

People's memories are short. This happens over and over again, and is nothing new. My first experience was Black Monday 1987, with a 22.6% drop in the DJIA, when I tried unsuccessfully to convince my soon to be Ex not to liquidate his IRA. He insisted I knew nothing while he had a degree in Finance from a prestigious university. Probably the basis for my lack of appreciation for the value of the alphabet soup of letters after someone's name wrt financial planning. He liquidated the IRA AND exposed us to additional 10% penalty along with the taxable transaction, in addition to the loss in value. What a setback!

The downdraft during Covid had me throwing cash at the market, resulting in one of my best ever returns with AVGO. Bought at an unreasonably low $189/share, which soon split 1/10, leaving me with many more shares than I originally owned even after selling off a good amount at $359/share a few years after purchase. I had also done the same after the dot com bust, though nothing quite as spectacular comes to mind, in part because I did not buy individual stock. Have set aside a good amount of cash, earning a decent rate of return, for the right entry point, taking the time now to set up my purchase strategy. Note that I am not a spectacular investor, just one willing to take reasonable risks, one of which being not being fully invested in the market at all times.

Obviously with an unnecessary war and unknown goals, plans, etc. it never helps financial markets.

But it sure can be a plus for an individual investor. Keep in mind that the current administration is highly motivated by making money for themselves. This can be done in down or up markets, as long as one has prior knowledge of what is being done before the rest of us do. You can expect the markets to be volatile, as that seems to be the best market in which to make money if you have insider information. Don't expect rationality, and you will do better. It's one of the reasons why I am looking at direct indexing with tax loss harvesting.

An added bonus for us is the hike in crude, which is making it possible for us to execute sales of options we still hold from a previous employer. One lot went today and there are limit orders in place for the remaining two at escalating prices. Was starting to think those would expire with the stock price too low to execute the sale. Might still, if this skirmish blows over sooner rather than later, but IMO there is a distinct need by our fearful leader to distract the Press from other things. I expect it to go on for a while.

IP