By Bergsy | February 28, 2026
The market is crashing. Or maybe it’s soaring. Your feed is full of panic. Your portfolio is a sea of red (or green). And your emotions are swinging with every tick of the index.
Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher, never traded stocks. But he understood volatility better than any modern hedge fund manager.
“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Meditations
The Dichotomy of Control
The central tenet of Stoicism is the Dichotomy of Control: differentiating between what is up to us and what is not.
* Up to us: Our investment strategy, our risk tolerance, our discipline, our reaction to loss.
* Not up to us: The Fed’s interest rate decision, global supply chains, the random walk of the market.
Most anxiety comes from trying to control the uncontrollable. We obsess over the price after we’ve bought. We regret the trade after we’ve sold. This is suffering.
Am I Disturbed by Things, or by My View of Things?
Aurelius would remind us that a 10% drop in a stock is just a number. It is our judgment—”This is a disaster!”—that causes pain. If we view volatility as the natural state of markets (just as storms are natural to weather), we cease to be surprised or angered by it.
Invest with logic. Accept the outcome with equanimity. And remember that wealth is a “preferred indifferent”—nice to have, but not essential for a virtuous life.
Recommended Reading:
* Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Book IV)
* Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic