Now, $26 billion is a fair chunk of change. It is, after all, the equivalent of more than $1000 per man, woman and child in Australia. And 1.6 per cent is a decent fall. So Wednesday's market drop was certainly newsworthy.

But the biggest surprise isn't that it happened. Rather, it's that it hadn't happened sooner. And more frequently.

Since Donald Trump's shock election win (thanks Hindsight Harry, I know you and millions of others "predicted" it), stock markets have been giddy with excitement. Just think of all of the banking deregulation, the roll-back of environmental protections, the construction boom on the back of President Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure plan. It's enough to make even the most seasoned investment professional just a little weak at the knees.

But, as markets do, people got carried away. Don't get between a trader and the chance of a quick profit. And even better when the herd keeps running, and running??? and running.

Having done this for a while, though, it's depressing how regularly these mini-cycles happen, and even more depressing how they somehow manage to catch many traders and investors by surprise. Suspending disbelief is so much easier when others are doing it too, but when the music stops, they all wonder what's gone wrong.

Apparently, that 1.1 per cent fall in the US was the end of the "longest streak of calm since 1995", according to USA Today. And yet people were surprised when it happened? You have the longest run without a big drop in 22 years, and none of them thought "Well I guess it has to end sometime, and when it does, I'll remember it was inevitable"?

Yes, yes, the talking heads reached for an explanation. Trump, as is the case these days, was wheeled out as Exhibit A. Which would be fine, but who really thought "you know, he seems to have this thing on a string... It all should go ahead without a hitch"? If you did, you're not thinking straight. And if you didn't, the market slump on Wednesday should have been well within your expectations of speed bumps along the way.

So tell me again what the big deal was?

Then, once we get past the big numbers, attention turns to what comes next. "The beginning of a new down leg," some would tell us. Others would suggest this is "the market taking a breather before going higher again".

Neither group knows. What's really going on is what always goes on - markets get it roughly right, over time, punctuated with bouts of irrational optimism and unfounded pessimism. Sounds almost neglectful to have that view, doesn't it? And easy for me to say after the fact. Except that I said it before the fact, too. I wasn't forecasting, by the way. I was simply suggesting that markets can really overreact, in both directions.

Foolish takeaway

The future will almost certainly be like the past: Long-term wealth creation, made up of short-term periods of deadly boredom with the occasional periods of fear or excitement.

Wednesday's fall? It was psychologically painful for many, and financially painful for some. But for those who realise it was simply markets doing what markets do, it was just another day at the office. The sooner you can make your peace with that, the more likely you are to succeed at this emotionally taxing game of investing.

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Scott Phillips is the Motley Fool's director of research. You can follow Scott on Twitter @TMFScottP. The Motley Fool's purpose is to educate, amuse and enrich investors.