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This week's global stock sell-off erased billions of dollars of market value.
But most Americans did exactly what investing experts advise in such a scenario: nothing.
According to a new MSN-Zogby poll, just 5% of Americans said they see a decline like this week's as an opportunity to buy, and only 1% said the slumping stock market causes them to sell.
Thirty-four percent said they either don't own stocks or are unsure how to react to a downturn.
Tuesday's around-the-world stock-market plunge trimmed more than $1 trillion from global equities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU), which has recovered some of that day's 416-point fall, is still on pace for its biggest weekly drop since January 2003. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) is on pace for the biggest weekly drop since September 2002.
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According to the poll, most Americans have heeded that lesson.
Among those (41%) who identify themselves as members of the investor class, 85% said they hold steady during market upheavals and don't make changes to their portfolios. But 8% of self-described investors say they buy, and 2% say they sell during a market downturn.
Men (61%) and women (59%) are about equally likely to hold onto their stocks during volatile shocks in the stock market.
The interactive survey was conducted Feb. 28 and March 1, and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
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