“Buy and Hold” can be improved to “Buy to Hold”
Too many people misinterpret “buy and hold” as “buy and hold no matter what.” A better phrase would be “buy to hold,” as this reflects the true intention of long-term investing. When you buy to hold, you hold the investment for as long as it makes sense to do so. You should consider each investment as a new investment for that day. Do not own an asset that does not make sense.
If something changes in the investment, market, or your goals, “bought and sold” is the way to go. As an investment strategy, “sell” is not a four-letter word.
If you make a mistake in your business analysis, or if the company moves in a different direction than you expected, you sell. In addition, if the reaction of the market agrees with your analysis, and the stock that was once a good deal with plenty of benefits is now just a solid stock that probably will not drop, you should divest your initial investment to let your earnings grow on their own.
Your goal should be to sell as infrequently as possible and only to minimize the inevitable drops in the market. Ultimately, “buy to hold” simply means you need to do your homework, find a great business to own for a while, and check it regularly to re-balance and re-evaluate.
I try to help you decide the right companies on this site. I use the tools that I teach in my book, The Confident Investor. If you really want to increase your wealth then your first investment should be to buy my book. You can purchase my book wherever books are sold such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million. It is available in ebook formats for Nook, Kindle, and iPad.