By Jared Coffin via Iris.xyz.
I’ve often come across articles and studies about the positive benefits or negative side effects of various products.
One year I’ll read that a given product is good for you. Later, I may read a conflicting study that states this product is horrible and could seriously harm your health. Most of the time I know little about the subject so don’t know what to believe.
I find such articles and studies fascinating because they mirror headlines I read on a daily basis concerning the stock market. I often hear about the positives and negatives of certain investing strategies. They too change over time, based on new information and changing circumstances. Increasingly over the past few years, passive investing – specifically, buy and hold – is supposedly the only thing that works. By contrast, during more prolonged downtrends, tactical investors will come out to preach and praise the fact that they have side-stepped a portion of some downtrend.
Before I go further, I want to state my belief that both methods can work – and many other strategies as well. What annoys me is those advisors and investors who bash a methodology that is different from the one they believe in. It can all work, depending on time frames and market conditions. Also, different strategies fit different personalities. While there are endless investment options, I want to focus on buy and hold. Again, I believe in this method of investing. Yet I don’t believe it suits many investors.
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