There's no sugarcoating that the past 14 months have challenged investors' convictions in a way we haven't seen in more than a decade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all plunged into respective bear markets last year and produced their worst returns since 2008.

But among this turmoil lies opportunity for patient investors. Even though we'll never be able to pinpoint when a bear market will begin, how long it'll last, or how steep the decline will be, history does conclusively show that every significant decline has eventually given way to a bull market rally that took the broader market to new highs. It effectively means that every pullback is a buying opportunity for long-term investors.

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Source Fool.com