To be a good trader, you must be patient. The magic of compounding takes time. In the markets, a good portfolio will weather any storm, and you will only disrupt that carefully designed strategy by doing something. In life, if everyone is screaming and running away, you should run too. In the markets, when everyone is screaming and running away, you should probably just stand there. Everyone has heard of the autonomic flight or fight response; there is a seldom-discussed alternative called the freeze response. Possums made this strategy famous in the Southern United States. When threatened, these creatures pretend that they are dead. When markets are in turmoil and blood is running in the streets, “play possum.”