January 3, 2017

Paradox for long term investors

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you construct a portfolio of such businesses and plan to hold on to it for a long time, allowing the magic of compound interest to do its magic and after you make these investments you are fully invested.

But then after a while you get some cash and that’s what creates this paradoxical situation. Which is that you are no longer willing to buy more of what you already own (because they are too expensive now) but you don’t mind holding on to these businesses you love so much.

And then you meet a trader friend who is quite successful and he politely tells you that you buy your portfolio every day. That is, holding on to a position is the functional equivalent of selling it and immediately buying it back (ignoring transaction costs and taxes). And so if you’re not a buyer anymore of a position you own, then you should be a seller.

I have struggled with this paradox for many years and have written about it in the past (in my interviews with Vishal Khandelwal of Safal Niveshak) and elsewhere where I have basically said that for long-term investors in high-quality businesses, the rules for buying a stock and those for holding a stock are not the same.

Read more at https://fundooprofessor.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/paradox

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