The 2025 stock market sell-off: an incredible opportunity to build wealth?

The stock market’s been volatile in recent months. While the UK’s FTSE 100 index has held up well, America’s S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes have fallen 8% and 12% respectively from their highs (meaning the latter’s in ‘correction’ territory).

Has this volatility created an opportunity for long-term investors? I think so. Here’s why.

Significant uncertainty

It’s easy to see why stocks have been volatile lately. For starters, Donald Trump’s tariffs on Europe, China, Canada, and Mexico have created a lot of uncertainty for investors. As a result of these tariffs, it’s become significantly harder to forecast companies’ earnings (earnings are what drive share prices).

Secondly, there’s a huge amount of geopolitical uncertainty. There’s Trump’s stance on Ukraine, there’s the conflict in the Middle East, and there’s increasing tension between China and Taiwan.

There’s also a bit of a growth scare. Right now, many investors are worried that the US – the world’s largest economy – could be heading towards a recession.

Overall, there’s a lot for investors to process.

The big picture

I still expect many companies to grow significantly in the years ahead however. Especially those in the technology space.

Today, the world’s in the midst of a major tech revolution, powered by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and electronic payments. And I expect this revolution to continue for many years – driving strong growth for the companies powering it.

Share price weakness

I think now could be a good time to take a closer look at the stocks of some of these tech companies. Because a lot have seen double-digit share price drops in the last few months.

Here are some examples:

A stock to look at now

One stock I believe is worth considering today is CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a stock I’ve been buying recently. CrowdStrike is a leader in the cybersecurity space. Offering one of the most advanced cybersecurity platforms in the world (designed for the cloud era), it protects tens of thousands of major businesses worldwide and is growing at a rapid rate (revenue growth of 21% is forecast this year).

One reason I’m bullish here is that cybersecurity spending is non-negotiable for businesses. In a recession, firms can cut marketing or CRM spend, however they can’t afford to cut cybersecurity spending. Ultimately, the risks associated with cyberattacks are too high. Especially now that criminals are using AI to launch more sophisticated attacks.

In mid-February, CrowdStrike shares were trading for around $450. Today however, they can be snapped up for around $360.

I see appeal at the current share price. Even if the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio on the stock’s still very high at around 100 (the company’s earnings are still quite low because it’s focusing on growth).

It’s worth noting it was CrowdStrike that accidentally caused the global IT outage last year. Another similar outage is a risk with this stock. Another risk is competition from rivals such as Palo Alto Networks. It has recently been pivoting to a ‘platformisation’ strategy to compete with CrowdStrike.

All things considered however, I like the risk/reward set-up (from a long-term perspective). Over the next decade, I expect this company to get much bigger as the world becomes more digital and the cybersecurity industry expands.

This post was originally published on Motley Fool