Equity investors discovered the meaning of risk all over again as markets around the world corrected sharply earlier this week. There is much speculation in the media if this is the beginning of a correction or the rumblings of a bear market or a mere one-day blip in a bull market that is almost four years old now.

I don’t put much faith in predictions of any kind and while the losses are not pretty, it is important to keep in mind that markets do not go up forever and corrections such as the one this week are inevitable. Also, market corrections do have a silver lining for the long-term investor: they almost always are a good time to put more money to work.