Nobody who’s invested in the stock market enjoys seeing it go down. It’s instinctual.
You check the markets. You see green. You feel good.
You see red. You feel uneasy.
It’s only natural to wonder: Why can’t the market just go up every day?

The simple answer is: it can’t.
And the reason goes back to one of the most fundamental principles of investing: risk and return.

I often hear this relationship explained the wrong way.
People say, “Higher risk equals higher return.”
Or, “The more risk you take, the more return you get.”
Sometimes it’s even drawn as a simple upward-sloping line — more risk, more reward.

But that’s not quite right.

The real relationship between risk and return is this:

With higher risk comes the expectation of higher returns — but also the possibility of lower returns, and sometimes even losses.

In other words, the reason we can earn higher returns over time is because we are willing to take on more uncertainty.
This concept is called the risk premium.
If there were no risk, there would be no premium — and no premium means lower returns.

As Larry Swedroe often says:
“Sometimes the risk shows up.”

It shows up during bear markets, recessions, periods of fear and uncertainty.
And importantly, these periods aren’t predictable — they come unexpectedly, testing our patience and resilience.

Even though it feels natural to root for the market to always go up, the truth is a bit different:
Without down markets, there would be no up markets.

Volatility, downturns, and uncertainty aren’t just the price of admission — they are the reason higher returns exist at all.
The next time the market drops, remember:
The risk has shown up — and that’s what makes the long-term rewards possible.