When I mention "long-term holding" or "patient waiting" in my articles, some fans express their inability to understand. They often ask, "How long is long-term? Is it decades or a lifetime?", "How many 10-year periods does one have in life?"

The "long-term" I refer to seems to have exceeded their imagination. They think the stock market is a place where money can be easily made and that one can quickly earn a substantial return on investment within a few months, or at most a year.

I must correct this gross misunderstanding of investment here. First of all, the stock market is not a place where money can be quickly made. The idea that the stock market can make money quickly in a short time is just an illusion. There are stocks that soar in the stock market every day, giving people the false impression that they can make a lot of money quickly by trading stocks.

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In fact, even if you buy a stock that soars by 60% in a day, it is still difficult to make money in the end. Unless you take this 60% profit and immediately leave the stock market and never come back. Otherwise, don't say you made 60%, even if you made 6 times, as long as you continue to play in the stock market, the money you made is likely to be lost. As the saying goes, those who make three times a year are as numerous as crucian carp crossing the river, while those who make once in three years are as few as stars.

This situation is very similar to playing mahjong. It seems that you won a lot of money this time or this week, but as long as you play for many years, you will find that you have not won much money in mahjong in the end. Why is that? Because the market fluctuations in the stock market are the same as gambling games like playing mahjong. The stock market is randomly fluctuating, and the winning of mahjong is also random. Luck accounts for 90%, and the role of skill is less than 10%.

Therefore, making money in the stock market is very difficult. It is not as easy as beginners imagine. Over the past few hundred years, every person who has made a lot of money in the stock market has gone through decades of wind and rain to earn it. No one has become rich in just a few years. None at all. Renowned as the fastest money-making man in the world, Simons' annualized return rate is only about 35%. This means that if you use his method to earn 100 million from 100,000, it will take at least more than 20 years! Many people claim they can make 1 or even 3 times in a year, but these people have all failed. No one has survived in the market to this day.

Secondly, you must have a set of methods that can make your final gains positive in the long-term ups and downs of losses and profits. This set of money-making methods is either very difficult to learn or kept secret. It is destined to be mastered by only a very few people. Buffett's value investing belongs to the category that is very difficult to learn, and the method of quantitative master Simons belongs to the category that is kept secret.

Value investing is an investment method that is clearly and truly told to people, but most people still cannot learn or do it. Learning it requires not only knowledge of business management but also overcoming one's own human nature, to be objective and rational, to invest within one's circle of ability, and to hold for the long term, etc. Just the point of "long-term holding" is something that more than 99% of people cannot do.

Take the investment master Buffett as an example: Buffett has held Coca-Cola stocks for 36 years. Buffett started buying Coca-Cola stocks in 1988 and has held them as long-term investments to this day. Buffett bought American Express stocks in 1964, and by 2024, he has held American Express stocks for 60 years.He began purchasing shares of The Washington Post in 1973 and held them for a long time. By 2024, he had held the Washington Post stocks for 51 years. Buffett's investment in Capital Cities Communications in 1985 is also a case of long-term holding, with a holding period of 39 years.

Buffett started to buy a large number of Apple Inc. stocks from 2016. By 2024, he had held Apple Inc. stocks for 8 years and still continues to hold them. Buffett's investment in the five major Japanese trading companies (Itochu Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and Sumitomo Corporation) in recent years is also a case of long-term shareholding. He first invested in these trading companies in 2020 and gradually increased his shareholding ratio in the following years.

Buffett signed an agreement with BYD in September 2008 to subscribe to 225 million shares of BYD at a price of 8 Hong Kong dollars per share, with a total amount of about 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars. By 2024, Buffett had held BYD stocks for 16 years.

Buffett's investment in Bank of America can be traced back to 2011, when Berkshire Hathaway purchased preferred shares and warrants of Bank of America worth 5 billion US dollars. If calculated from 2011, by 2024, Buffett's holding period of Bank of America stocks will be 13 years.

Buffett invested in oil stocks in 2008. If Buffett's investment in oil stocks in 2008 included Chevron, then by 2024, the holding period may be close to or exceed 15 years. Buffett started to buy a large number of Wells Fargo stocks in 1989. If calculated from 1989, by 2024, Buffett's holding period of Wells Fargo stocks will be 35 years.

There are many more examples like the above. I won't list them one by one here. Seeing these, do we ordinary investors still think that holding for ten or even decades is unimaginable? Among my friends who trade stocks, at least a hundred people, only one person has held a stock for as long as 10 years. He held Vanke A and finally made a profit of 20 times. But he only bought 10,000 yuan.

The vast majority of people hold for a long time because they are trapped and have no choice, and they will sell as soon as they are released. My classmate's father held a department store stock for 10 years before he was released, and then he immediately sold it at cost. This situation is the most common. Very few people can continue to hold stocks that have made several times the profit. People like Buffett who have made dozens of times the profit and can still hold are extremely rare.

Many years ago, a friend of mine bought a stock. When he first bought it, he said he would make a long-term investment and would not sell unless it doubled. As a result, he couldn't hold on after making a 60% profit in half a year and cleared his position. Later, this stock did indeed rise and double, but it had nothing to do with him.

My hundreds of thousands of fans! Who among you can hold a stock for more than 10 years in profit? If anyone can do it, I will express my deep respect for him here!

Although stock investment does not necessarily have to hold for more than 10 years, many times we need our investors to have the ability to hold for more than 10 years. "Long-term patient holding" is one of the basic skills of stock investment. In short, stock investment, like our life, has no shortcuts in the long run, and success can only be achieved through long-term tempering.