I read a very interesting article between 1 1/2 and 5 years ago, in
maybe Barrons or maybe the Wall St. Journal or maybe something else,
and would pay cash money for a .pdf reprint of it.

Everyone talks about the importance of being 'in stocks for the long
haul' and that you shouldn't be a market timer.  If you 'bought and
hold' you would be up 10%, but if you weren't 'in' during the few
'very big up days' you would only be up 5%, so you should always be
fully invested.

Or should you?

This article says that if you were 'not in' during the very few
'biggest down days' you would be up 20% or more.  So, it is therefore
more important to not be in at the wrong time than it is to be in at
the right time - something I've tried to impress upon my friends and
family.

Who shall rise to the challenge and find this piece for me?

---

Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 07 Nov 2002 11:34 PST

strazco,

Is the "Who loves ya now?" text part of the article title or content,
or just a comment you added to your subject line?

aceresearcher

---

Clarification of Question by strazco-ga on 07 Nov 2002 11:49 PST

sorry! the 'who loves ya now' was my 2 cents worth editorial comment,
and absolutely not part of the article.  hope you didnt waste any time
as a result.

Hello strazco,

I know the information that you are speaking of.  But, I can’t find it
right now.  However, I thought you might find the information you are
looking for in at one of these sites.

Good luck.
pba

The Motley Fools talk about this issue
The Buy and Hold Apocalypse 
Introduction 
http://www.fool.com/school/buyandhold.htm?ref=LN

A list of articles on this strategy.
Buy and Hold
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/buyandhold.asp

I know this isn’t the article you were talking about.  But, you might
like to see it as well.
Stock Selling Strategies The Buy and Hold Strategy
http://www.breakoutreport.com/selling/aa062900.htm

On the other side of the issue is this article.
Buy and Hold?  Outdated and Irrational
http://www.turtletrader.com/buyandhold.html


Keywords Used: 
'buy and hold'
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=+%27buy+and+hold%27&btnG=Google+Search

stock strategy "buy and hold"
://www.google.com/search?as_q=stock+strategy&num=10&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=buy+and+hold&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

The biggest problem I have with day trading (besides the fact that,
unless you have illegal inside information, it is more gambling than
investing) is all the tax headaches it creates. You are required to
document _every_ trade you make on your tax returns. Do you really
want to do that for hundreds of trades? Do you think you can
accurately do that for hundreds of trades? Do you think that this
doesn't make a much more likely auditing target?

It is much easier to research a stock and determine what should be up
20% or so in two years time than to accurately predict what is going
to "pop" at any particular time, for all the myriad of reasons it
might possibly happen. You also don't have to sweat every little
downtick if you have a plan for the long haul...that stereotype of
daytraders chugging Maalox is a stereotype for a reason!

Regardless of your strategy, the most important rule of the stock
market is this:  don't invest any more than you can afford to lose.