Does the market volatility so far this year make you reach for Pepto-Bismol? Don’t Abandon Stocks, says S&P’s Joseph Listani. It is very good advice.

Long-term investors should ignore short-term market volatility, save and invest regularly in a well-diversified portfolio. Prof. Ibbotson estimated in 1999 that over the next 25 years, small-cap stocks would return 12.5%, large-cap stocks 11.6% and govt. bonds 5.4%. He further predicts that the Dow will hit 100,000 in 2024. Now, there will probably be very few years when the markets actually increase by the average return. The vast majority of annual returns will fluctuate wildly. When the market is range-bound, it pays to concentrate on long-term returns.