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Retail investors dipping their toes back into the market after the early April downdraft shouldn’t lose sight of the major unknowns amid the Trump trade war.

That’s the warning from veteran investment manager Rebecca Patterson.

“There’s nothing wrong with day trading. A lot of people do it for a living and make very good income from it. But if this is money that you’re counting on to be your retirement income, your long-term savings, you don’t want try to to time something that’s not timed,” Patterson told me on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast (video above; listen in below).

“President Trump’s posts are not timed. How these deals play out or not is not timed. So you’re basically just gambling. And that is not how you save for the long term.”

Patterson is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She’s also an independent director at Vanguard, the global asset manager with more than $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM). She was previously the chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund.

Patterson explained, “If this is longer-term-oriented money, then I would make sure that a good chunk of it is in something that you’re just sitting on, that you’re not trying to go up and down and tactically trade. That might be money markets, short-term bonds right now, which are still getting you over 4%. It might be a small allocation to gold, which I remain bullish on as central banks continue to diversify. If you want to stay in the equity markets, maybe you move a little bit more into defensive industries like consumer staples.”

Read more: How to invest in gold in 4 steps

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) has seen a four-day rally despite a series of mixed earnings reports from the likes of household-name companies such as PepsiCo (PEP). Downright bad ones from companies like Tesla (TSLA) have been well received, with that stock up 25% in the past five trading sessions.

The benchmark index is up 12% from its April 8 trough (but still down 10% from its mid-February peak).

Japan’s Topix Index closed Monday at 2,650.61, just above the close on April 2 before Trump unveiled his tariff scheme.

The safe-haven gold trade that has dominated 2025 has cooled.

The 10-year Treasury yield, however, remains above the level seen before Trump’s “Liberation Day,” around 4.27%.