When people say they held a fund/stock for many years (IRA, mutual funds)

[snowmountains]

Do they usually mean they never sold any, or they may have sold part of it for profits, then bought it again, maybe repeatedly, so they always owned some shares of it?

[mathjak107]

usually held it and not sold . i know i have some i have been "trading " for a long time. i would not say held .

[TwoByFour]

Originally Posted by snowmountains

Do they usually mean they never sold any, or they may have sold part of it for profits, then bought it again, maybe repeatedly, so they always owned some shares of it?

You will have to ask those who say that, but what I mean when I say I am a long-time investor in X is that the investment is strategically important to me so while I may sell a bit here and there, it is a key part of my portfolio and I either keep the bulk of it intact, or add to it. But I never go in and out of it.

[snowmountains]

Thanks to both. I don't have any fund that has been held for many years the way you two did, not even money market fund In fact I don't really have a fund regarded as a 'core' fund.

[Listener2307]

I held 3M for about 30 years. Never bought any more and reinvested dividends and sold out at a 16X return.
I guess that is "many years".

Now I own BEAT. Bought it about a year ago for 14+. Still holding at 31+. I plan to hold as long as it makes sense. Could be "many years". I watch Income Statements, not charts.

[Teak]

snowmountains

I have bought and held onto stocks. The only time I have sold is when I needed a bit of money to buy a house for cash.

[flyonpa]

I have two Mutual Funds : I've Held Since 1982,

Fidelity Magellan
American Century Ultra



The Magellan is in my Roth, (Moved from IRA to Roth at some point), But don't consider it a sale since it was a tax movement thing.

The Ultra is in a Normal "Brokerage" account.

The rest of my Stocks/ETF/MF are in varies ages .

[Mr. Zero]

Originally Posted by snowmountains

Do they usually mean they never sold any, or they may have sold part of it for profits, then bought it again, maybe repeatedly, so they always owned some shares of it?

When I say, I've held a stock for XX many years, I mean it pretty literally, as in "I've continuously held shares for XX many years", whether or not that position has grown or declined over the years, and regardless of the importance of that stock in my portfolio.

I opened a long position on TSLA several years ago, in my "play" bucket. Since then, I've added some shares when I thought it might go up, and sold some shares when I thought it might go down, but my long position has never fallen below a certain threshold. I still say "I've held TSLA for several years."

[jrkliny]

I only have direct stocks in two companies. I have held them for a while without any sales or trades. One stock I have owned since the late 1960s. Another I received as a bonus about 1980.

[kickingprop]

I've been holding my original bunch of shares in AMZN since 2004 I think... I've added to that position periodically, most recently in early 2015 when it dipped to the $290 range. Not planning on selling anytime soon.