Risk perception is relative; its existence is absolute.

The hardest part about a correction isn't the magnitude, it's the duration. Going from 2,600 to 1,600 is visible, but how long will it take? No one knows.

Japan next door speaks from experience on this topic. They felt the euphoria of rising from 100,000 to 20,000,000, and they also endured the agonizing slide from 20,000,000 to 18,000,000.

What truly breaks you is the passage of time. They never imagined the correction would drag on for 20 years. And even today, the Japanese don't know how many more years they'll wait for the next cycle from 100 to 2,000.

Waiting is the greatest torment for long-term believers, even undermining the very foundation of their faith.

If someone's investing career spans just 30 years, and they experience the rise from 100 to 2,000 before growing old, they're fortunate.

But if they live too long and ride the full 50-year wave, each of those final 20 years becomes a psychological ordeal—each year dismantling the convictions built over an entire lifetime.