After a sharp rise the past few years, the stock market has had a rocky start to 2025. Concerns that President Donald Trump's tariff policies could send the economy into a recession have extended the declines for the major market indexes over the last few weeks.

So what should investors do when stock gains evaporate or profits become losses? Here’s how to decide what to do when a stock you own plummets. Seeing a stock decline by a significant amount is likely to cause an emotional reaction in most investors.

The Nasdaq Composite has dropped roughly 13% in less than a month (as of this writing). However, after The Trade Desk reported earnings in February that didn't meet its own expectations for the first time in 33 straight quarters,