How these five investors are playing the market chaos

The chaos of President Trump’s tariffs and government spending cuts has prompted some people to question the standard “set it and forget it” investing approach and divert their money into Treasurys, precious metals and elsewhere. Others saw recent market declines as a chance to pounce on cheaper stocks.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with five people on what changes, if any, they are making to their investments.

Buying up stocks

Aaron Hilton, 28, is doubling down.

“I feel like this is the first real test of whether or not I run at the first sight of trouble,” said Hilton, a military officer based in Hawaii. “So far, I’m sticking to the plan.”

Aaron Hilton, a military officer based in Hawaii, primarily invests in broad-market index funds.

Hilton had been adding about $1,500 a month to his investments. To take advantage of market declines, he has been spending less and using the extra savings to buy up more stocks.

He said his job security and long investment horizon make him comfortable taking some risks.

Hilton primarily invests in broad-market index funds but also has some money in ETFs that track crypto-related companies and the housing market.

His portfolio has continued to grow despite market swings. A simulation by his brokerage showing how a high-risk portfolio would have rebounded from the 2008 crash reassured him that patience pays off. “Even in a worst-case scenario, it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” he said.

Leaving the U.S. behind

Andrew Gouda, 37, didn’t like what he was seeing in the U.S. economy. So he moved his money.

Gouda, a pharmacist in Clearwater, Fla., had invested in U.S. stock indexes since 2018. After markets wobbled in February, he shifted heavily into gold, silver and international markets.

Excluding his retirement and college-savings accounts, Gouda’s portfolio is now 55% in metals and mining ETFs and 45% in international equities.

After two years of huge gains, Gouda grew skeptical that the U.S. stock market’s continued rise was sustainable. “What’s happening on the ground for middle-class Americans just doesn’t line up with what the stock market is doing,” said Gouda, who voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. He noted the higher prices for essentials like groceries.

Despite his concerns, he has kept contributing to his ETFs tied to gold, silver and mining stocks as well as his 401(k) account and a 529 college-savings plan for his daughter. He also keeps about $35,000 in a money-market fund for emergencies.

Staying the course

Vijay Gandevia, 59, isn’t budging.

“This is reactionary, this is panic mode,” said Gandevia, a retired physician, of the recent selloff. “People think something has fundamentally changed, but nothing real has actually happened.”

Vijay Gandevia, a retired physician, says he is keeping his portfolio heavily invested in index funds.

Gandevia, who splits his time between Massachusetts and Florida, has about 70% of his liquid investments in index funds tracking the S&P 500 and the broader U.S. stock market. He said he keeps enough cash on hand to cover expenses for years. This approach lets him avoid making hasty decisions when markets turn volatile, he said.

“I don’t define risk and volatility as the same thing,” he said. “Volatility just means up and down. Risk means you’re actually losing money.”

When the market plunged during the pandemic, he said, he didn’t hesitate to buy a couple of hundred thousand dollars of index funds.

Now retired for a year and a half, Gandevia has a goal to keep his principal intact and generate enough capital gains, interest and dividends to sustain his lifestyle—spending winters in Daytona Beach, Fla., and cooking with his wife and biking.

Finding havens

Catherine Faddis has been worried about the direction the economy is heading. In late February and into March, she traded about 20% of her stock holdings for short-term Treasurys.

“I’m not going to put cash under my mattress, but if I hold a three- or six-month, or a one-year, that’s the next closest thing,” said Faddis, who is in her 50s and works as a portfolio manager at an asset-management firm in Boston. “It’s sort of a fear trade.”

She took the opportunity to dump stocks in the tech-heavy Magnificent Seven companies, which she considered overvalued. Faddis said she felt like that call was correct. Those companies’ market capitalizations have collectively fallen about 11% in the past month.

The tricky part: deciding when to put that money back into the stock market.

“Am I going to catch the bottom? Nope,” she said. Faddis said she has accepted that she might miss the first leg of a rebound.

An opportunity

Chris Ullman, a 61-year-old communications consultant in Alexandria, Va., is among those who see a buying opportunity.

Chris Ullman recently put more money into the stock market than he usually does.

This past Monday, he put $20,000 into an index fund that tracks the overall U.S. stock market. That is more than three times the amount he puts into that retirement account in a typical month.

“I bought on the dip,” Ullman said, adding, “If you’re early 60s and you’re not about to retire, you should be excited.” He said he is likely about five years away from retirement himself.

Ullman, who voted for Trump in 2024, said he thinks that the economy is still heading in the right direction and that the recent market slump isn’t an indication that it is on a path to becoming much weaker.

But he said family members have sometimes questioned his strategy.

“My daughter said to me, ‘What if it falls another 10%?’” Ullman said. “I said, ‘I’m going to put another chunk in.’”

Write to Joe Pinsker at joe.pinsker@wsj.com and Dalvin Brown at dalvin.brown@wsj.com