The past two-plus years have been polar opposites for Wall Street. In 2021, stocks could seemingly do no wrong, with the largest correction in the S&P 500 amounting to just 5%. Meanwhile, last year, all three major indexes plummeted into a bear market and delivered their worst single-year returns since the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

While short-term movements in the market can be highly unpredictable, what is a virtual guarantee is that the broad-market indexes increase in value over long periods. Every single correction, crash, and bear market throughout history (excluding the current bear market) has eventually been fully cleared away by a bull market. For patient investors, it means every notable decline in the major indexes is a buying opportunity.

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Source Fool.com