Link:
http://www.financialpost.com/personal-finance/your-money/direct-investing/story.html?id=1507182
I stared at this part of the article:
Unlike most advisors, Robert Cable, Toronto-based head of ScotiaMcLeod's Cable Group, is a strong believer in "seasonal" market timing, also called a "sell in May and go away" strategy. While investors may want to emulate Warren Buffett and buy and hold forever, in practice "nobody does it," he says. He recalls asking 300 advisors at a Florida conference how many of their clients had bought and held the same portfolio a decade or more. The only hand that went up represented a client who was literally in a coma following an accident and whose account could not be traded.
"Anyone who goes into investing with the intent of buying and holding virtually always succumbs to outside pressures to abandon the strategy. My guess is when we have nobody believing in buy-and-hold again, we will again be ready for one big bull market to take off," says Mr. Cable.
I had to think about this and wondered if it could be true. Nobody buys and holds? Really? Perhaps people who use "advisors" don't buy-and-hold, but those who don't use advisors use buy-and-hold? Or would this observation be true regardless of whether or not one had an advisor?
Then I thought of myself. I still have the same stocks that I bought 10 years ago (Fossil and Berkshire Hathaway). Of course, I've added stocks since then (I work, money comes in, I deploy it). I had no intention of selling these stocks, but some stocks have been taken out of my hands due to buyouts (eg Oakley, King World Productions). Is this really so rare to hold for 10 years?
Perhaps it depends on the definition of "having the same portfolio" for 10 years. I don't have the same portfolio because, as I mentioned, cash comes in and the portfolio changes (ie more deployable cash).
PS: This is not to say that I haven't sold. I sold Natuzzi and Consolidated Edision.
