Preparing for Market Corrections: A Guide to Positioning Your Portfolio Market corrections are inevitable and temporary, lasting about 115 days on average. US stocks have recovered from every past correction, and investors should prepare by shifting toward defensive assets, building cash reserves, and treating corrections as long-term buying opportunities. Market corrections are inevitable and unpredictable in timing, but they are also temporary. The average correction lasts about 115 days, and US stocks have recovered from every one. Investors within three years of retirement should shift toward defensive assets, while others should maintain their plans, build cash reserves, and treat corrections as long-term buying opportunities. The causes of corrections vary widely, including geopolitical tensions, surging oil prices, elevated stock valuations, rising interest rates, disappointing economic data or corporate earnings, runaway inflation, or a combination of these factors.Recovery From Past CorrectionsThe good news for investors is that US stocks have recovered from every past correction and gone on to reach new record highs. The author recommends increasing allocations to bonds and other safe assets, and within equity portfolios, tilting toward defensive sectors - healthcare, utilities, and consumer staples - where spending continues regardless of economic conditions. Rebalancing is a critical but often neglected discipline.The key insight is behavioral: the goal is to be the buyer taking advantage of discounts, not the panicked seller creating them. This requires both the cash reserves to act and the psychological discipline to buy when markets are falling - two things that are easier to plan for in calm markets than to execute in turbulent ones.