"Buy and hold" does have its advantages.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

From today's Wikipedia "Did you know...":

Ronald Read (philanthropist)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ronald_Read_philanthropist.jpg

Undated photo of Ronald Read

Born: October 23, 1921, Dummerston, Vermont, U.S.
Died: June 2, 2014 (aged 92), Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S.
Occupation: Philanthropist, investor, janitor, gas station attendant

Ronald James Read (October 23, 1921 – June 2, 2014) was an American philanthropist, investor, janitor, and gas station attendant.

Read grew up in Dummerston, Vermont, in an impoverished farming household. He walked or hitchhiked four miles daily to his high school and was the first high school graduate in his family. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II, serving in Italy as a military policeman. Upon an honorable discharge from the military in 1945, Read returned to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he worked as a gas station attendant and mechanic for about 25 years. Read retired for one year and then took a part-time janitor job at J. C. Penney where he worked for 17 years until 1997.

Read died in 2014. He received media coverage in numerous newspapers and magazines after bequeathing US$1.2 million to Brooks Memorial Library and $4.8 million to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Read amassed a nearly $8 million fortune by investing in dividend-producing stocks, avoiding the stocks of companies he did not understand such as technology companies, living very frugally, and being a buy and hold investor in a diversified portfolio of stocks with a heavy concentration in blue chip companies.
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Investing and frugality

Reader's Digest's Juliana LaBianca said Read was "a blue-collar guy with blue-chip smarts". The Wall Street Journal noted that his roughly $2,380 purchase of 39 Pacific Gas and Electric Company shares on January 13, 1959, grew to $10,735 by the time he died. Read bought many shares of The J.M. Smucker Company, CVS Health, and Johnson & Johnson and held for long-term several blue chip companies, including Procter & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, and Dow Chemical Company. He focused on companies that paid generous dividends, which he would reinvest into purchasing additional stock. He did not invest in technology companies and the stock du jour because he concentrated largely on companies he knew about. When he died, he had no fewer than 95 stocks that were diversified in many industries such as healthcare, telecommunications, public utilities, rail transport, banks, and consumer goods. Although he owned shares of Lehman Brothers when it went bankrupt in 2008, the bankruptcy minimally affected his returns because his investments were diversified. In a safe deposit box at his bank, Read stored his stock certificates, which when piled together reached five inches high. To remain updated on his investments, he relied on The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and the public library near him. Read read The Wall Street Journal daily.

His neighbors, family, and friends did not know the scale of the money he had amassed. Read used a safety pin on his fraying khaki denim jacket so he could continue wearing it and put on shabby flannel shirts. Read was a regular at a Friendly's where one time a patron paid for his meal because the patron thought Read could not afford the meal. He owned a used 2007 Toyota Yaris, which Read's lawyer, Laurie Rowell, said despite his being a millionaire, whenever he visited, he parked in the further parking spaces that did not have parking meters.

[comradebillyboy]

1. The market goes up, the market goes down. The long term trend

is up so buy and hold has a lot of merit. One still needs to jettison losing investments and look for solid performers. Can't just go on autopilot. Our Fidelity account manager thinks our investments are fairly aggressive for our age though.