Are you an adrenaline junkie? You may be one and not even know it. If you are an investor in the stock market, you may have noticed a sinking feeling in your investment portfolio before a sharp bounce-back, much like a bungee jump. Before the recent drop of -6.6% in the Dow during August, some stock investors got lulled into a state of complacency, considering a tripling in stock prices over the last six years.

Almost any current or future news headline has the capability of potentially triggering a short-term bungee jump in stock prices. Now, worries over the health of the Chinese economy and financial markets, coupled with concerns of an impending rate hike by the Federal Reserve have created some tension for global financial markets. The slowdown in China should not be ignored, but as famed investor Bill Nygren pointed out, its impact should be placed in the proper context. China only represents 15% of global economic activity and U.S. exports to China only account for 0.7% of our GDP.

Although the drop in U.S. prices last month was scary, other major markets were in deeper freefall. For example, the Chinese Shanghai Composite, Japanese Nikkei, and German DAX indexes nosedived -15%, -10%, and -9% last month, respectively.

Successful veteran investors understand alarming volatility is the price of admission to achieve superior, long-term equity returns. In fact, data compiled since 1900 underscores the commonplace of volatility over the decades. For example, during the last 115 years, investors have witnessed the following:

The chart below provides some graphical perspective on volatility over a shorter period of time (i.e., the last six years). As you can see, previous corrections have felt just as uncomfortable in magnitude as the latest dip, but regardless of the endless stream of concerns, prices have repeatedly rebounded.