Although stock market corrections can be painful in the short run, they're a normal part of long-term investing. Since the beginning of 1950, there have been 39 double-digit percentage corrections in the broad-based S&P 500, which equates to one about every 1.9 years.

In 2022, all three major U.S. stock indexes firmly fell into respective bear markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite producing their worst full-year returns in 14 years.

But when there's uncertainty on Wall Street, there's also opportunity. Even though we'll never be able to accurately predict when downturns will start, how long they'll last, or how steep the decline will be, we do know that every single correction and bear market throughout history (excluding the ongoing bear market) has eventually been cleared away by a bull market. It makes big dips in the major indexes a surefire buying opportunity for the patient.

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Source Fool.com