"Dear Prudence" is one of my favorite Beatles songs. It is the second song on their 1968 self-titled double album, famously known as the White Album. Written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney), it is widely celebrated for its uplifting message. It is a sweetly haunting and hypnotic melody… one that you can put on repeat and let play in the background for hours—which I’ve done many times.
Source: Wikipedia
The "Prudence" in the song is Prudence Farrow, the 19-year-old sister of actress Mia Farrow. She became so intensely focused on her meditation that she rarely left her hut, effectively becoming a recluse for three weeks. This new behavior had become obsessive, leading her to lose touch with the outside world. Lennon was asked to encourage her to socialize, which led him to write the lyrics coaxing her to "come out to play" and "greet the brand new day".
To get you in the mood and set the tone for the rest of this blog post, I strongly encourage you to click the link below and let the music and lyrics wash over you a couple of times.
Dear Prudence (Remastered 2009)
There’s a quiet invitation in the Beatles’ Dear Prudence that feels harmless at first: “Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?”
In today’s market, that line sounds familiar. Come trade this. Come chase that. Come try your hand. It’s constant. It’s subtle. And it’s everywhere.
This is Part 3 of a series I’ve been thinking about for a while—how markets are changing, and more importantly, how we should respond. If Part 1 of this series was about how investing started to feel like gambling—and Part 2 showed how the casino has, in many ways, come to Wall Street—then this is the part that matters most: How do you respond when the invitation never stops?
Because the market itself hasn’t fundamentally changed. Businesses still grow. Earnings still matter. Long-term ownership still compounds wealth the way it always has. What has changed is behavior.
More specifically, how easy it has become to slip from investing into speculation without realizing it. And it’s not happening by accident. Historian Jonathan D. Cohen recently outlined how quickly sports betting transformed once it became digital, immediate, and always accessible. What used to require effort now requires nothing more than a swipe. What used to be occasional became constant.
That shift didn’t just change access. It changed behavior. And markets are following a similar path. The tools are faster. The feedback is instant. The incentives are aligned toward activity. Zero-day options. Leveraged ETFs. Endless narratives. Real-time reactions to everything.
It creates the same pull: just enough movement to feel like you should act… and just enough success to make it feel like you’ve figured it out. Over time, that changes how people think—it starts to feel less like investing and more like playing.
That’s where prudence comes in.
Because the real challenge in this kind of environment isn’t figuring out what to buy or sell. It’s resisting the urge to respond to everything. It’s understanding that not every opportunity is yours—and that availability doesn’t equal necessity.
One of the most dangerous traps in both gambling and investing is the illusion of control. A few good outcomes start to feel like skill. A hot streak feels like validation. And before long, process gets replaced with instinct. But markets, like casinos, have a way of correcting that mindset. What works for a while often stops working without warning. And when behavior has been built on momentum rather than discipline, there’s nothing to fall back on when conditions change.
That’s why long-term investing can feel so unsatisfying in moments like this. It’s quiet. It’s patient. It often looks like inactivity. But that’s also where its strength lies.
At moments like this, it’s worth coming back to some of the simplest and most ignored wisdom in investing. A couple of them come from Warren Buffett, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest investors of the last century. I often say he is the most admired but least emulated investor of all time.
"Our favorite holding period is forever." This advocates for buying high-quality businesses that can compound over decades.
"The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient." This highlights that lasting wealth is built by holding, not trading.
And finally:
Source: YouTube
Holding high-quality assets through volatility isn’t passive…it’s intentional. It’s a recognition that short-term movement is often noise, and that compounding requires both time and restraint.
At the same time, discipline doesn’t mean blind loyalty. Prudence also means being honest about when something no longer fits. Not because of a headline or a bad week, but because the underlying case has changed. There’s a difference between volatility and deterioration. Between temporary discomfort and permanent impairment. Knowing that difference—and acting on it—is what separates process from reaction.
Another subtle risk in this environment is what happens when things are going well. Success can be just as dangerous as failure. When markets rise quickly, positions grow. Portfolios drift. Risk builds quietly in the background. And because nothing feels broken, there’s little urgency to adjust.
But prudence isn’t just about avoiding mistakes—it’s about maintaining disciplined diversification. Sometimes that means trimming. Rebalancing. Resetting exposures back to where they were meant to be. Not because you’re predicting what comes next, but because you’re acknowledging that nothing moves in a straight line forever. Trees don't grow to the sky, and you don't control whether the market goes up or down on any given day. Prudence means taking proactive steps to help protect what you have built.
And then there’s the broader environment itself. There are periods when speculation becomes so dominant that it starts to feel normal. When narratives matter more than numbers. When participation is driven more by emotion than analysis. For those of you who remember the dot.com bubble of the late 90s, or the real estate bubble of the early 2000s, you know what that feels like. Some investors are wondering whether we are now in a similar speculative period for AI companies.
That’s when the invitation gets loudest. And it’s also when discipline matters most. Because the biggest risks in markets rarely come from what we clearly see. They come from what we slowly start to accept. That fundamentals don’t matter. That the rules have changed. They haven’t. History doesn’t repeat—but investor behavior often rhymes, as highlighted in this historical wisdom from the late, great investor, Sir John Templeton:
Source: Facebook
What has changed is the environment—and the behavior it encourages. Which brings us back to something simple, but incredibly important: Your edge as an investor isn’t information anymore. It’s behavior.
Can you stay patient when everything around you is speeding up?
Can you stick to a process when shortcuts seem to be working for others?
Can you step back when the crowd is leaning in?
Let's remember another piece of wisdom from legendary value investor Benjamin Graham, one of Warren Buffett’s mentors:
Source: A-Z Quotes
Those decisions don’t feel dramatic in the moment. But over time, they make all the difference. Because the goal of investing was never to win every trade, catch every move, or chase every opportunity. It was to build something durable. I call it the “cumulative effect of days”…small, consistent decisions compounded over time that lead to meaningful outcomes. To grow wealth steadily. To manage risk thoughtfully. To stay aligned with long-term objectives instead of short-term noise.
In a market that increasingly resembles a casino, the temptation is to adapt by becoming more like it…faster, more aggressive, more reactive. But that’s not where the advantage is.
The advantage is in recognizing that you don’t have to play that game at all. You can choose something else.
You can choose prudence.
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?
You can step back. And maybe the most important decision isn’t whether to come out and play. It’s realizing you never needed to leave the shelter at all. Thanks for letting me share this important series of messages as we continue “Moving Life Forward.”
© 2026 Jesse Hurst
Senior Wealth Manager
The views stated are not necessarily the opinion of Cetera and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Due to volatility within the markets mentioned, opinions are subject to change without notice. Information is based on sources believed to be reliable; however, their accuracy or completeness cannot be guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Neither Cetera Advisors LLC nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice. This information is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation.
Investors cannot directly invest in indices.
A diversified portfolio does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
Rebalancing may be a taxable event. Before you take any specific action be sure to consult with your tax professional.
Featured Blog Image Source: iStock.com/Dilok Klaisataporn