Investing could help you grow your wealth over time, meaning you are better able to achieve your goals in life. However, market crashes can be daunting for investors. After all, any significant losses might threaten your future financial security and ability to realise your dream lifestyle.
That’s why, when you see the value of your portfolio fall rapidly, you might be tempted to sell your investments to avoid further losses.
However, this may not be the most sensible course of action because markets typically recover and continue growing. As such, selling prematurely could mean that you lock in those losses and miss out on further gains in the future.
The performance of tech company Nvidia in the first half of 2025 demonstrates this perfectly.
Read on to learn more.
Tech company Nvidia achieved rapid growth and became the most valuable company in the world in 2024
Nvidia is a tech company that produces computer hardware, which is often used to power advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.
In recent years, the company has seen huge success, becoming one of the “Magnificent Seven” – a group of seven high-performing stocks that make up a large portion of the US market share.
In fact, CNBC reports the Nvidia stock price increased by 239% in 2023 and 171% in 2024.
In June 2024, Nvidia was named the world’s most valuable company for the first time.
As such, if you held shares in the company, you may have seen significant growth in recent years.
That said, the beginning of 2025 brought much turmoil for investors in Nvidia.
Nvidia lost $593 billion of its market value in one day in January 2025
Nvidia experienced rapid growth because tech businesses around the globe were buying the company’s computer chips in large quantities to power their AI software.
However, at the beginning of 2025, a Chinese company announced a new AI model called “DeepSeek” and caused a serious upset for Nvidia and the rest of the Magnificent Seven.
This new AI model reportedly used far less computing power than the US alternatives, causing markets to question whether the tech sector would be as reliant on Nvidia products in the future.
The uncertainty around how this new AI technology would affect the company caused panic among investors and inspired a mass sell-off of Nvidia stock.
As a result, Reuters reported that the share price fell by 17% and Nvidia lost $593 billion in value in a single day. This was more than twice as much as the previous record for the one-day loss of a Wall Street stock.
Consequently, if you held shares in Nvidia – or any of the other US stocks that experienced similar falls – you would have seen the size of your portfolio shrink overnight.
If you were reading the news at the time, it might have seemed like DeepSeek would completely upend the tech world and US companies like Nvidia would face long-term challenges.
As such, you could have been tempted to cut your losses and sell your shares in Nvidia, perhaps investing in DeepSeek instead.
Yet, this may have been a mistake because Nvidia quickly bounced back.
Nvidia became the first $4 trillion company in the world at the beginning of July 2025
After the DeepSeek upset, global stock markets faced even more turmoil when Donald Trump introduced tariffs – a tax on goods imported to the US – on countries around the world.
Despite the effects of DeepSeek and the ongoing market volatility, Nvidia quickly recovered and continued growing in value.
In fact, on 9 July 2025, Forbes reported that Nvidia had become the first publicly traded company in the world to be valued at more than $4 trillion.
If you had panicked and sold your Nvidia stocks in January 2025 after the initial fall, you would have locked in a loss of 17%.
Conversely, if you held the shares for six months, the value of your investment may have recovered and continued growing as Nvidia bounced back from the earlier market turmoil.
Indeed, figures from CNBC suggest that the company showed total overall growth of 69% in the year to 3 June 2025. What’s more, Forbes reports that the Nvidia share price has increased almost 35,000% in the past decade.
As such, if you took a long-term approach and held Nvidia stocks for an extended period, you may have benefited from significant growth, despite a seemingly disastrous start to the year.
The fall and rise of Nvidia teaches the value of a long-term approach when investing
The recent fall and rise of Nvidia demonstrates that even the most drastic market falls are typically short-lived.
Throughout history, there have been countless examples of market volatility including the Wall Street Crash, the dot com bubble, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
In all cases, the markets have recovered and continued growing in the future. Unfortunately, many investors experienced losses because they panicked when markets fell and prematurely sold their investments.
That’s why it’s important to take a long-term approach and hold your investments during a period of volatility. While past performance doesn’t guarantee future returns, the data suggests you are likely to benefit from more growth in the future when markets recover.
It may be challenging to hold your nerve in these situations, but we can offer valuable reassurance and guidance when markets are in turmoil.
Get in touch
If you are concerned about how market volatility could affect your financial plan, we can help.
Please contact us at hello@ardentuk.com or call or WhatsApp us on 01904 655 330. As an award-winning financial advice company with advisers included in the 2025 VouchedFor Top Rated guide, you can be sure that we’re a bona fide company providing excellent advice and high-quality service.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.