Is It Normal to Avoid Opening the App During a Market Crash?
The account balance hasn’t changed just because the app hasn’t been opened in two weeks, but somehow it still feels safer not to look. Avoiding a portfolio during a downturn is one of the most commonly described reactions to a market drop, even among people who otherwise consider themselves calm about money.
In short
Yes, it’s a common reaction, and there’s a recognizable psychological reason behind it: watching a balance drop in real time tends to trigger more stress than the drop itself actually warrants, especially for money that isn’t needed for years. Avoidance doesn’t change what’s happening in the account, but it also doesn’t necessarily lead to worse decisions, and for some people it prevents a worse outcome, like selling out of fear at the bottom of a downturn. Whether it’s a helpful habit or an unhelpful one generally depends on what else a person does, or doesn’t do, while they’re avoiding the app.
Why the instinct is so common
Watching a number drop day after day activates a stronger emotional response than a single glance at the same overall decline weeks later, a pattern that shows up across a lot of behavioral research on loss aversion. Checking constantly during a downturn can also invite frequent, reactive decisions, which is part of why some people describe deliberately stepping away as protective rather than avoidant. It’s less about denial and more about limiting exposure to a stressor that doesn’t actually require constant monitoring to manage well.
When avoidance works in someone’s favor
- It reduces the temptation to sell in a panic. Not looking removes the moment-to-moment trigger that might otherwise prompt a reactive decision during a period of high volatility.
- It matches a long time horizon. For money not needed for many years, day-to-day balance swings are largely irrelevant to the eventual outcome, so stepping back can be a reasonable match for that timeline.
- It lowers daily stress. For some people, constant checking during a downturn measurably increases anxiety without providing any useful new information to act on.
When it’s worth staying a little more engaged
Avoidance can become a problem if it prevents someone from noticing something that actually needs attention, like a contribution that stopped processing, an account that needs rebalancing, or a near-term need for the money that changes the situation entirely. It’s also worth remembering that volatility itself is a normal feature of investing, not a sign that something has gone wrong, a point covered in more depth in why investing feels so unpredictable when you’re new to it.
How this connects to other financial stress points
The instinct to look away during a downturn shares something in common with pausing other financial habits during a hard stretch, like the reasoning behind pausing investing during a financial emergency, where stepping back from one part of a financial routine can be a reasonable, temporary response rather than a mistake. It’s also worth being cautious about chasing the opposite instinct once markets recover, since waiting and researching before jumping on a trend tends to serve people better than reacting quickly in either direction.
What to weigh
Avoiding the app during a downturn is a widely shared coping habit, not a sign of doing something wrong, and for many people it’s protective rather than risky. The general guidance is to make sure avoidance doesn’t stretch into ignoring account changes that genuinely need attention, while accepting that stepping back from daily monitoring is a reasonable way to manage the emotional side of a volatile stretch.