How do you react when you are overwhelmed? A common response is to be paralysed into inaction or to panic and make hasty decisions.

These are both risks for investors right now. One could easily look at stories about banking crises, volatile rate expectations, geopolitical tensions and inflationary pressures and either sit on your hands in quiet despair or sell everything and put the cash in the bank.

While it goes without saying that you need to make the right financial decisions for you and your family there are strong arguments for sticking to your investment strategy, keeping your eyes firmly fixed on your longer-term goals and trying to ignore the background noise in the market.

This is easier said than done. Referencing the recent Oscar-winning film, investment bank Berenberg describes this as an ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’ market. And at times it seems the world is serving as many narrative twists as the absurdist comedy drama.

Analysts Jonathan Stubbs, Edward Abbott and Leoni Externest comment: ‘There is so much going on around the world and across financial markets that it can, at times, feel a little overwhelming. Our investment “senses” are under attack from all sides.’

They go on to observe: ‘Investors need eyes wide open on a long list of risks: macro, inflation/rates, market, banks, politics/people, geopolitics, health, black swan risks. One direct consequence of this risk jamboree is a higher volatility regime across financial markets.’

So, how do we block out these fears and get on with using the markets as the proven money-making tool they have historically always been?

It goes back to what you can control as an individual. For one thing, you can limit the risk of being caught out by market timing by putting a regular amount of money to work each month which should help even out swings in the value of your investments.

Another important thing to do is some research. Maintaining focus does not mean sticking your head in the sand. Have a look at the performance of your portfolio and if something has done particularly poorly (or particularly well) it is worth a fresh consideration of said holding’s merits.

You shouldn’t sell just because an investment has underperformed but you would want to understand why it is struggling.

Has the strategy behind the fund, investment trust or company changed? Has something happened in their wider industry to handicap them or has sentiment turned against their sector? After all, the general rule of thumb is that a ‘bad’ stock in a ‘good’ sector will outperform a ‘good’ stock in a ‘bad’ sector.

Banks might look like bargains right now, offering extremely generous dividend yields but you could have made that argument at almost any point over the last 15 years and they have rarely, if ever, rewarded investors who have taken the punt and put money into them.

As this article explores there are still interesting value opportunities in the market, really good companies which are not currently getting the credit they deserve in their valuations. Shares will continue to help steer you through the current disorientating backdrop with a mixture of ideas, insight and education.

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