It is a well known fact that equities are fraught with risk. But the word “risk” also needs to be further looked into. In equities the risk is more in the short term, over longer term, it is not very high. Also, when diversified in the manner that exposure is to different segments of an economy, risk of a sharp decline in value comes down. Another way to manage risk is that when valuations are high, move to companies which have strong and large balance sheets and have seen many economic cycles and have survived the slowdowns in the past.