The way humans have evolved over millions of years is spectacularly unsuited for investing (Think Ramapithecus and similar forebears). The events and the results of the last year demonstrate that as well as anything could.

In most environments, survival is based on quickly recognizing threats and reacting. In the stock market, the best results come from putting some thought into investments ahead of time and then ignoring threats and being patient.

In mid-March last year, in the early stages of the pandemic, the stock market had a historic two-week swoon. In that period, the stock market had three of the 20 biggest single day drops in the more than 100 years of modern stock market history.

A global disease closed economies around the world with unprecedented speed and thoroughness. In time, the pandemic turned out to be much worse in many ways than most experts predicted. Still, the economy, while not fully back, has recovered more quickly than most forecasters anticipated.

Any prudent investor could be excused for taking money off the table last spring and sitting on the sidelines until the devastation was behind us.

And that was the exact wrong thing to do.

Looking back over the last year, we have had a historic stock market rally with stocks increasing more than 60 percent in the U.S. to all-time record levels.

Within the market, we have had an equally dramatic turn of events.

As the pandemic raged, giant technology stocks, which benefited from the economic activity of shut-ins, soared. A huge percentage of the gains from spring to early fall were concentrated in a handful of stocks such as Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Netflix and Amazon. Tesla became the most valuable automobile stock in history.

And then quietly, it all changed in undramatic fashion. The big tech stocks continued to drift upwards but stocks that had under performed for a decade, the small cap value stocks, the energy stocks, real estate stocks, cruise ships and airlines surged.

These unloved, even hated stocks had one of their half dozen biggest periods of out performance in the last century and for the full year dramatically outperformed the tech darlings.

In the spring of 2020, any investor who was paying attention was ready to panic. There was no plausible explanation for sticking with the program. No story made sense. In practice, on March 23, 2020, the Federal Reserve launched the most aggressive rescue program in modern history and it worked beyond anyone’s expectations. In a shocking display of unity, the Congress passed dramatic legislation that also played a key part in reviving the economy. Into 2021, the Fed and Congress continue to do their parts to keep the economy climbing.

Despite this volatile period that no market analyst could possibly have predicted, individual investors faith in their ability to foresee stock market gloom is still undiminished. People who badly misread the landscape a year ago to their own detriment, are convinced that they see the pratfalls ahead. Surely after the stock market has risen so far so fast, it cannot keep going.

Of course, no one knows. That is the big lesson of the last year. No one knows and anyone who thinks differently is an ill-informed fool.

What we do know is that over time, if the economy does well, the broad stock market should too. Over the last 95 years, since good data became available in 1926, the broad U.S. stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 have increased by 10 percent a year on average. Rarely has the market gone up close to 10 percent in a year but most years it has produced positive returns and only a quarter of the time has it produced significantly negative returns.

At a 10 percent annual return, the market doubles every seven years and quadruples in 14. My stock market career began in the summer of 1982 when the Dow was at 800. Today it is above 33,000. There has never been a time in those nearly 40 years when I could not have made a case that the stock market faced significant challenges and it was prudent to be wary. And yet, the prudent thing actually was to stay invested.

If you stay invested through thick and thin, you are highly likely to be the beneficiary of powerful returns. If you go in and out of the market, your returns are likely to suffer greatly. Big gains on a handful of days power portfolios and these rare big days are impossible to foresee.  The effect has been well documented.

For several decades consulting firm Dalbar has looked at investor returns compared to the performance of the mutual funds they invest in. Generally, investors get 1/3 to ½ of the returns their mutual funds generate because they move in and out at the wrong times.

In 1996, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan made his historic warning that the market had risen too much because of “irrational exuberance.” At the time, the Dow was at 6437.

Surely, after a period of big increases the stock market is bound to cool off. After a spell of hot temperatures, we often have a cold wave.

However, every day logic does not factor into the stock market.

Stock market researchers have crunched the numbers. After periods of strong stock market returns, the stock market has produced average returns. After periods of weak stock market returns, the market has produced average returns. After periods of average returns, a similar result.

The lesson? Don’t guess. Don’t expect that your common sense will work on the stock market. Don’t expect that you are smarter or better informed than the millions of other people focused on the stock market and paid to do so.

What should you do? Understand your situation. Figure out how much risk of a difficult period can you sustain. Understand why you are investing and when you will be spending the money. Craft a diversified portfolio. Keep your plan flexible. Above all, don’t react to events and be patient. Don’t let your adrenalin and emotions guide your investments. Understand that investing is a long game and short- term movements are noise.

Over the long term, over decades, the stock market has the potential to be rewarding if you can keep your own behaviors in check. The stock market is inherently risky but the biggest risk is you, not the market. Here is the true law of the jungle for investors. Stick in the market and hear your returns roar.