If a Stock Market Crash Is Coming, Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman Says You Should Do This Thing Right Now

Billionaire Bill Ackman has become one of the most followed investors of the modern era.

His hedge fund, Pershing Squarestypically manages a concentrated portfolio of 10 to 12 stocks (but sometimes more), in which he and his team perform in-depth, bottom-up fundamental analysis of individual names trading at attractive valuations relative to their fair value.

Did you miss Nvidia in 2009? This rare signal flashes again. In 2009, a “Double Down” signal sounded for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, this same signal of “total conviction” rings out for a company a hundredth the size of Nvidia. Continue “

Ackman would consider himself a modern-day Warren Buffett and would not be afraid to hold stocks for longer periods of time. His portfolio currently has several hyperscalers, so he’s not necessarily worried about artificial intelligence, but he also has a good understanding of different market cycles, having been through several during his career.

If a stock market crash happens, Ackman would advise investors to do this thing now.

Ackman thinks like Buffett during stock market crashes

Investors are certainly becoming nervous about a market that has been on an uptrend for several years, even if it exhibits great volatility. It seems like not a day goes by without some market strategist or TV pundit speculating about an impending stock market crash. Of course, many investors remain quite optimistic.

Even though AI appears to be a revolutionary technology so far, other market indicators suggest that the market is trading at high levels not seen since the dotcom bubble. No one can guess whether a stock market crash will occur or not because predicting short-term events in the stock market is almost impossible.

Similar to Buffett, who advises investors to “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful,” Ackman also views any selloff as an opportunity. “Whenever something that creates uncertainty happens in the markets, stocks usually go down and risk premiums go up,” the billionaire said in a fireside chat in 2025. “If you wait until the uncertainty goes away, then everything will revalue… (and) it’s much more likely to return to its fair value.”

Ackman added: “As an investor, you should be excited at all times…it gets uncertain, and the clouds come, the storm comes. That’s when you want to have capital to invest.”

His advice is very sound for long-term investors. Buying stocks at high valuations when the market is high can still work in the long run. However, it’s even better when you can take advantage of a temporary market disruption to jump into trading stocks at a falling valuation, especially if it has more to do with trading activity than the company’s fundamental business.

Since the height of the pandemic, market sell-offs have quickly recovered, rewarding investors who had the courage to buy when fear was high.

Good Ways to Implement Ackman’s Tips

Investors should not confuse Ackman’s advice with simply buying liquidation stocks. Often, sell-offs happen for good reasons. It’s more about finding stocks whose business model and long-term investment thesis remains intact at the time the stock is sold. In fact, Pershing uses a great model for knowing when to buy stocks with low valuations.

Pershing Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel explained how Pershing decides which stocks to pull the trigger on during a selloff, and how he used this approach to buying. Amazon after the stock struggled in the second quarter of 2025 following President Donald Trump’s big tariff surprise. In an investor update last year, Israel said:

… We track a set of hundreds of companies that we haven’t really owned or haven’t owned in a long time that we think are blue-chip companies that we would like to own when we think the price is right and we think the returns meet the threshold that we’re looking for, and Amazon has been on that list for many years.

So if you have a watchlist that you monitor over time and really get to know these companies, you’ll have an easier time deciding what to buy during massive sales. Remember, it’s almost impossible to time the market, so you’ll never know exactly when a selloff will occur. This is why it is a good idea to always have at least a small, separate liquidity pool, if possible.

Did you miss Nvidia in 2009? This rare signal flashes again

In 2009, a “Double Down” signal sounded for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. If you had invested $5,000, you would be sitting with $2,996,003 Today.*

Now, for the first time in years, this same “Total conviction” signal blinks for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. It’s a key player in the $1.8 trillion space race, and with the stock recently down 20% from its highs, the window to enter sooner is quickly closing.

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*Stock Advisor returns October 5, 2026

Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool posts and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

If a Stock Market Crash Is Coming, Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman Says You Should Do This Thing Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool