The other will have his hand cut by a falling knife.

Oops, did I just take sides?

Over a long enough timeline, the stocks will probably recover. Buying stocks will probably lose short term. Probably gain long term.

Over a long enough timeline shares have always gained.

> Over a long enough timeline shares have always gained.

Except in Germany and Japan after WWII

"Over a long enough timeout shares have always gained" Not so sure if you take inflation and Survival bias into consideration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#In_finance_a...

If you follow an index, that doesn't cause an issue. You are also forgetting stocks also pay dividends, so it doesn't have go up either.

"On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to 0."