Wealth Insights
Smart ways to engage with the market

Article 4 min read

Published March 13, 2025

Discover a healthy approach to monitoring stocks in 2025 and beyond.

The results of the 2024 presidential election may have left you wondering what long-term impact it will have on the market—and your portfolio. How will the new administration’s proposed tariffs affect the economy? What industries might benefit from a climate of deregulation? The answers to these and other questions could impact the stock and bond markets. “In the short run following an election, you typically get more volatility,” says Alan McKnight, Chief Investment Officer at Regions. That’s what we saw in November 2024.

Keeping tabs on those ups and downs can become all-consuming. McKnight offers a healthy approach to monitoring the market in 2025 and beyond.

Focus on what you can control

You can’t control the market despite how much you’d like that. But you can control your future by ensuring you have a wealth plan that’s designed to help you attain your short- and long-term goals. “What type of returns will you need to retire, for example?” says McKnight. “Are you taking too much or too little risk to achieve your goals?”
Measure what matters

You may find it easy to be caught up in constantly asking, “Am I outperforming the market?” But tuning into TV news several times a day to see if the S&P 500 is up doesn’t tell you what matters. Instead, focus on whether you are on track to pay for retirement, health care, your kids’ educations and other priorities. “The hourly updates are not indicative of your portfolio, so measure what matters to you,” says McKnight.
Eliminate the noise

Up-to-the-minute market news is available with a few clicks on your TV, phone, tablet or computer. We are bombarded with information, and all that “noise” can encourage impulsive behavior, such as selling at a loss with the first hint of bad news about a stock. “It’s important to restrain yourself from being reactive,” says McKnight. “Taking a more thoughtful, long-term, data-driven approach leads to success the majority of the time.”

Avoid the noise—and get a distillation of the market news you need—by joining the Regions team for our Asset Management Weekly Market Commentary, a weekly Webex call.