Theres a blip currently with a downward trend but its not particularly alarming, and well within normal behaviour for the market. Plenty of diversity should even things out as well as leaving you free to pick up better opportunities as they come along, as long as you've got liquid assets and can move fairly quickly. I've got no concerns in the long term, things will bounce back before you know it.
I did lots of buying yesterday - particularly in biotech stocks, and also in put options. Bonds IMO are not a very good place to be these days, unless you're buying them for income. If you're just using them for asset allocation purposes, I'd keep bond exposure to a minimum. About the only decent yields these days are in the higher yielding corporate and emerging markets bonds, and default risk has risen lately in many issues - so I'd make sure you really know what you're buying there. Existing bonds in general are going to take a hit once the fed hikes. Longer term bonds and treasuries in particular. The average small investor should just continue focusing on the long term - dollar cost averaging every payday, and not getting spooked. Maybe take some profits on some of your better performing stocks, but generally view these big drops as buying opportunities. A highly advanced investor with a fair amount of money is hopefully buying some put options on more volatile and overpriced companies as insurance against long stock positions in your portfolio, and perhaps taking at least a few short stock positions in some lower-beta names. A good hedge for anyone to consider perhaps throwing a few of your bucks into regardless of what level you are at: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/SH?countrycode=US
