To get these returns, an investor had to sit through the March 2020 crash, where markets fell 30% in weeks. Buy-and-hold investors who sold in a panic missed the subsequent fastest recovery in history.
An "informative piece" on the buy-and-hold strategy starting in 2014 offers a masterclass in the power of patience, compound interest, and weathering market volatility. If you had invested in a diversified portfolio or key market leaders in 2014 and simply walked away, your financial landscape today would look drastically different.
A "buy and hold" strategy is only as good as the assets you choose. The last 12 years favored those who bet on and semiconductors . Approx. Price (Jan 2014)* Legacy of the Hold NVIDIA (NVDA)
The logic of "buy and hold" is simple: time in the market beats timing the market. However, the emotional toll is where most investors fail.
An investor who held an S&P 500 index fund from Jan 1, 2014, to today would have seen a total return of roughly 250–300% (including reinvested dividends). This effectively tripled their initial capital despite the 2018 trade wars, the 2020 COVID-19 crash, and the 2022 inflationary spike. The Champions of the Decade