Buy-and-Hold Is Always Tried and True

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Stocks took a breather last week, but the move lower by the major indices was a far cry from what many now say is a long overdue correction.

In fact, the lack of conviction by sellers resulted in stocks almost always closing higher than intraday lows. So far there has been no spark to light the fire that will take some of the steam out of the current rally.

The current environment is a bit of a mind-bender. Most market participants realize that stocks never go up in perpetuity as they seem to be doing of late. There almost always is a pause or some sort of correction. The question is timing.

It is certainly not out of the question to see stocks move higher without pause for longer than many expect. One could even argue that the very expectation of a pause is what keeps the market moving higher.

As I said, reading the tea leaves is a bit of a brain teaser that very few can solve. Those that try usually fail. The result can be lost gains by being overly conservative in your portfolio while the market is rising, or buying stocks at the very wrong time when the correction does indeed come.

Therein lies the beauty of buy-and-hold-investing. With buy-and-hold, there is no need to solve the riddle of “Will stocks go up or will they go down?” Deploy your capital, sit back and enjoy the ride.

You are likely to be rewarded in the long run.

This article originally appeared in Traders Reserve


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2012/03/buy-and-hold-is-always-tried-and-true/.

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