Embrace a Long-Term Outlook
I spent some time catching up on market and finance related reading over the weekend. I have been reading mostly history and fiction of late and have neglected some of the more interesting new releases in market-related literature. I noticed a lot of chatter on Twitter and some of the websites I visit about a new offering entitled The Indomitable Investor by Steven Sears, a writer I have learned to respect over the years. I am about halfway through the book and I recommend it to readers and students of the market. I do not agree with all of his points, but it is a thought-provoking read.
One of his major points is worth revisiting today. I have talked often about the need for investors to set up longer time frames. Sears makes the point in his book that most investors simply do not own stocks long enough to benefit from the real wealth building benefits that owning equities can provide. The author, as I do, blames Wall Street and its sales and marketing practices for the failure of most investors to outperform the markets. We regularly see research reports with six-to-12 month price targets that project 20% or 25% gains over that time frame. It is ridiculous to buy stocks with that short a time horizon or that small a gain. I want to own stocks for a long time that return many times my original investment -- not try and guess which stock might exceed earnings next quarter and go up a few points....457 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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