#MarketPullback What’s a Pullback?

A pullback is just a fancy way of saying the stock market takes a step back. Imagine prices climbing a hill, then sliding down a bit before (often) heading back up. We measure pullbacks by how much the market falls from its peak—say, 5%, 10%, 15%, or 20%. Each size tells us something different about what’s going on.

The Small Dip: 5% Pullbacks

A 5% drop is like a speed bump—small and super common. Over the past 100 years, the stock market has hit a 5% dip in about 94 out of every 100 years. That’s almost every single year! Sometimes it happens a few times in one year, like little hiccups. It’s so normal that investors barely blink at it—it’s just the market taking a quick breather.