How long is long term??

I keep hearing references to long term holdings. I'm referring mainly to equities.

I'm curious to how others manage their long term investments.

I'm a firm believer in cutting losses short and letting winners run.
I no longer turn losing trades into long term investments.
My rules are not to hold losers in the portfolio and to hold a winners until the trend changes.
It works for me.

How about the rest of you with long term holdings? When do you sell?

 

It is up to individuals to define it.

Some said it is a few weeks.
Some said a few months, or years.

Some long-life people said a few decades

 

Long term is you are happy holding the position regardless of downturns...downturns are only considered buying opportunities...like hedge funds...do they ever unload positions? They might scale down but if you look at the holdings they hold indefinitely.

If you don't like the asset then trading becomes gambling. I would consider capping your investment versus cutting losses.

 

Multi-year.

Most of these Buffett-wannabes go by fundamentals, not technicals. So what they look at are things like p/e and b/s, obviously not your typical moving averages or other tea leaves on the chart.

Had you simply bought and sat on your hands, eg. "buy and hold", since 2009, you would be a multi-millionaire already. So what are you talking about?

 

right before you are dead

 

That's the problem, I don't like holding during down turns.
I agree that downturns are buying opportunities, but where does the capital come from to take advantage of those opportunities?

I don't particularly like or dislike the assets I trade but I consider it more running a business than gambling. Why would I cap my investments? The market is the only place I can generate the returns I need to support my lifestyle. Cutting losses insures that I have capital available when opportunities present themselves.

 

And who would have paid me to do that? I live off my investments/trading. Which I have done for the last 20 or so years and managed to increase my liquid net worth each year.

 

You're doing the correct thing!

 

Holding some stocks for 17 years. Sitting on un-realised profits >20X. This does not yet count dividends credited to the bank account every year, No intention to sell them.