What Is Buy and Hold? How the Investing Strategy Works (2024)

What Is Buy and Hold?

Buy and hold is a passive investment strategy inwhich an investor buys stocks (or other types of securities such as ETFs) and holds them for a long periodregardless of fluctuations in the market. An investor who uses a buy-and-hold strategy actively selects investmentsbut has no concern forshort-term price movements and technical indicators. Many legendary investors such as Warren Buffett and Jack Bogle praise the buy-and-hold approach as ideal for individuals seeking healthy long-term returns.

Key Takeaways

  • Buy and hold is a long-term passive strategy where investors keep a relatively stable portfolio over time, regardless of short-term fluctuations.
  • Buy and hold investors tend to outperform active management, on average, over longer time horizons and after fees, and they can typically defer capital gains taxes.
  • Critics, however, argue that buy-and-hold investors may not sell at optimal times.

How Buy and Hold Works

Conventional investing wisdom shows that with a long time horizon, equities render a higher return than other asset classes such as bonds. There is, however, some debate over whether a buy-and-hold strategy is superior to an active investing strategy. Both sides have valid arguments, but a buy-and-hold strategy has tax benefits because the investor can defer capital gains taxes on long-term investments.

To purchase shares of common stock is to take ownership of a company. Ownership has its privileges, which include voting rights and a stake in corporate profits as thecompany grows. Shareholders function as direct decision makers with theirnumber of votes being equal to the number of shares they hold. Shareholders vote on critical issues, such as mergers and acquisitions, and elect directors to the board. Activist investors with substantial holdings wield considerable influence over managementoften seeking to gain representation on the board of directors.

Recognizing that change takes time, committed shareholders adopt buy and hold strategies. Rather than treating ownership as a short-term vehicle for profit in the mode of a day trader, buy-and-hold investors keep shares through the bull and bear markets. Equity owners thus bear the ultimate risk of failure or the supreme reward of substantial appreciation.

Buy and hold is often also called position trading.

Active Versus Passive Management

The debate over passiveversus active management styles persists. A buy-and-hold investor reflects a passive management style. In the case of a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, indexed portfolios mirror that of a common benchmark.

As indices rebalance and weightings increase relative to market capitalization, turnover rates, which are often under 5% among passive funds (such as an S&P 500 Index portfolio), remain ultra-low as managers focus on issues across the broad market. Stocks are held for as long as they remain components of the indices.

Even though you hold the securities you buy for the long-term, you still need to consider price fluctuations and pay attention to their performance.

Real World Example of Buy and Hold

An example of a buy-and-hold strategy that would have worked quite well is the purchase of Apple (AAPL) stock. If an investor had bought 100 sharesat its closing price of $18per share in January 2008and held onto the stock until January 2019, the stock climbed to$157per share. That’s a return of nearly 900%in just over 10 years.

Those arguing against using a long-term strategy claim that investors forsake gains by riding out volatility rather than locking in gains and miss out on timing the market. There are some professionals who regularly succeed with short-term trading strategies, but the risks can be higher. Investment success isalso realized by loyalty, commitment to ownership and the simple pursuit of standing pat or not moving from a chosen position.

What Is Buy and Hold? How the Investing Strategy Works (2024)

FAQs

What Is Buy and Hold? How the Investing Strategy Works? ›

Buy and hold is a long-term passive strategy where investors keep a relatively stable portfolio over time, regardless of short-term fluctuations. Buy and hold investors tend to outperform active management

active management
The term active management means that an investor, a professional money manager, or a team of professionals is tracking the performance of an investment portfolio and making buy, hold, and sell decisions about the assets in it.
https://www.investopedia.com › terms › activemanagement
, on average, over longer time horizons and after fees, and they can typically defer capital gains taxes.

What is the buy and hold investment strategy? ›

Buy-and-hold is a passive, long-term investment strategy that creates a stable portfolio over a long period of time to generate higher returns. Instead of trading shares based on stock market timing, investors buy stocks and hold onto them despite any market fluctuation.

What is buy and hold real estate investing? ›

What Is Buy And Hold Real Estate? Buy and hold real estate is a long-term investment strategy where an investor purchases a property and holds on to it for an extended period. The owner typically intends to sell it down the line but will rent out the property until then to help with buy and hold real estate financing.

Does buy and hold always work? ›

A buy and hold strategy is a long-term, passive strategy in which investors keep a relatively stable portfolio over time, regardless of short-term fluctuations. The success of buy and hold has been proven by historical data and is the preferred investing strategy of industry giants such as Warren Buffet.

What does "hold" mean in investing? ›

A 'hold' is generally an experts suggestion or recommendation to not either sell or purchase securities. A firm making a recommendation to hold is usually anticipated to perform with the market or at a similar pace of peer companies. This rating is considered to be better than sell and not better than purchase.

Why buy-and-hold is still the best approach? ›

The Buy and Hold strategy is preferred for its potential to yield significant long-term returns, lower transaction costs due to fewer trades, reduced tax liabilities on long-term capital gains, and the benefit of compound interest. It's also less time-consuming and requires less market expertise than active trading.

Is it better to buy-and-hold or trade? ›

But for most people it's better to be an investor than a trader – and it can take less time and effort, too. Legendary investor Warren Buffett recommends that investors regularly buy into an index fund such as an S&P 500 fund and then hold for decades.

How to analyze a buy and hold property? ›

Here, we go over eight critical metrics that every real estate investor should be able to use to evaluate a property.
  1. Your Mortgage Payment. ...
  2. Down Payment Requirements. ...
  3. Rental Income to Qualify. ...
  4. Price to Income Ratio. ...
  5. Price to Rent Ratio. ...
  6. Gross Rental Yield. ...
  7. Capitalization Rate. ...
  8. Cash Flow.

How do you make money buying and holding in real estate? ›

Buying and holding is a type of long-term investment that's considered a standard rental property. You purchase a single-family home or a multi-family unit, then turn it into a yearly rental that generates steady passive income while you pay down your mortgage.

What is the difference between buy and hold and position trading? ›

This is the type of trading that most closely resembles buy and hold investing, with one crucial difference: buy and hold investors can only take long positions, whereas position traders can take both long and short. Get tight spreads, no hidden fees and access to 12,000 instruments.

Is buy-and-hold investing dead? ›

It's pretty clear that the investing world believes that buy-and- hold strategies are basically dead and gone. Is the consensus correct, and are buy-and-hold strategies truly dead? The answer, if you ask us, is a definitive no. Buy-and-hold is very much alive and well.

What is the best strategy for buying stocks? ›

Among the best tips of stock trading for beginners, experts and analysts agree that buying low and selling high is a fundamental way to make gains. When share prices fall or dip in the market, this is when you need to buy shares and while the price of shares goes higher up, this is when you have to sell your shares.

What are 5 questions you should ask when investing? ›

5 questions to ask before you invest
  • Am I comfortable with the level of risk? Can I afford to lose my money? ...
  • Do I understand the investment and could I get my money out easily? ...
  • Are my investments regulated? ...
  • Am I protected if the investment provider or my adviser goes out of business? ...
  • Should I get financial advice?

What is the buy and hold strategy? ›

Buy and hold is a passive investment strategy in which an investor buys stocks (or other types of securities such as ETFs) and holds them for a long period regardless of fluctuations in the market.

How do you make money buying and holding stocks? ›

Investors, meanwhile, can make money from stocks in 2 ways:
  1. Share appreciation. When a company does well financially or becomes more desirable, the value of its stock can increase. ...
  2. Dividends. Certain companies may decide to share a portion of their financial success with investors through cash payments called dividends.

Is it legal to buy and sell the same stock repeatedly? ›

While the practice is legal, investors who trade the same securities often in a single day are potentially flagged as “pattern day traders" (PDT), which requires adherence to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) requirements.

What is the difference between buy-and-hold and stop loss strategy? ›

Stop-Loss strategy is an exit strategy that cuts on losses and locks in profits while Buy-and-hold strategy is a strategy of measuring long-term performance. The Buy-and- hold strategy is mainly applied by value investors who have various systems when deciding when and if to invest in a stock.

What is a buy and maintain strategy? ›

A buy and maintain strategy is a cost efficient strategy to harvest the credit risk premium in global credit markets. We aim to select corporate bonds to optimise yield whilst controlling risk and hold them to maturity – replacing holdings if there are credit concerns or the opportunity to enhance yields.

What is the difference between buy-and-hold and market timing? ›

Buy-and-hold involves buying securities to hold for a long-term period, although the definition of long-term varies based on the investor. Market timing includes actively buying and selling to try and get into the market at the most advantageous times while avoiding the disastrous times.

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