One word: chaotic

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the lasting impacts of the COVID19 pandemic, has made the market hard to properly get a feel for.

When growth happens it can suddenly drop. New lows can happen out of nowhere.

As a fairly new investor, I have learnt to be more patient. Do not blindly rush in to buy a good share because it can come back down and there will be more opportunities, even if it is for small savings.

I also learnt that the ever-changing situations can bring opportunities and can take away the gains too:

I bought into $TOP GLOVE CORPORATION BHD(BVA.SI)$during the pandemic and it performed reasonably well (for obvious reasons). Then news came out about their unethical treatment of workers (while the company said the claims were baseless, where there is smoke, there is fire...). Then humanity gradually deemed the pandemic to be virtually over (the virus does not give a hoot about whether you think it is over or not, look at the resurgence all over the world). All these factors compounded into a sharp fall in value. NEVER be greedy, always reflect if your gains have context (in this case, gains were fueled by the pandemic), change courses if need be. 

I will always repeat: invest what you can afford to lose. Do your due diligence. Do not be greedy and if it is time to cut losses, sever it immediately.

Stay safe out there!