Buy and Hold: Conflicts of Interest?

The buy and hold investor has been led to believe (perhaps by an industry with a powerful conflict of interest) that if he has tremendous patience and discipline and stays with it he will make a good long term return. These investors fully expect that they will make back most, if not all, of recent losses soon enough. They believe that the best place for long-term capital is the stock market and that if they give it 5 or 10 or 20 years they will surely do very well. Such investors need to understand that they can go 5, 10 and 20 years and make no return at all and even lose money.
Richard Rudy

Honest with Yourself

You have to be very, very honest with yourself. You must not kid yourself. Whether you have a position that is underwater or you are sitting on a huge profit, you have to look at it in exactly the same way. That is the main reason why people lose money in the market. I am very glad that that's the case because if it wasn't the case, it would be very difficult for people like me to consistently make money in the market.
Alpesh B. Patel