The most important thing about investment is not to lose money, especially not to lose a lot. Also, you do not want to endure significant volatility in the value of your investments. You cannot afford sizable losses. You have a house, kids, cars, etc. You live in an unstable society in an unstable world. You need protection as much as profit.
If your portfolio account goes down -15% to -20%, you have a serious management problem. This should not happen. At some point, you have missed important information. Consider the ramifications of a 20% drop in asset value. It would take a move up of 25% just to break even, no profit. How often does that happen? How long will it take? You are losing time value in your life. You can only encounter smaller risk levels to justify investment activity. If you invest, you should make at least double the risk free rate of treasury bill/cd rates thru a market cycle. And then you still need to worry about inflation.
Do not believe the Wall Street mantra of “just hold on”. That is an excuse for incompetent management. In reality, buy and hold is often buy and lose.
That does NOT mean day trading and other speculations.
There are intermediate and long term cycles and trends. This is an everchanging world with dramatic economic events. If you and your manager are not cognizant as to how to plan and process in this environment, you should not invest. Investing is going to get harder not easier.
If you need help, let me know.