buy and hold strategy - pros and cons

I have some mates who are quite confident in the so called Buy and Hold Strategy but I believe it's better to get out when you know a crash coming or better still short the market. Then when the market is bull again, jump back in.

Anyway found a book which spells out why it is not profitable to just buy and hold in the stock market. The summarized For and Against points are found in:

http://ozstock.blogspot.com/2010/12/buy-and-hold-strategy-pros-and-cons.html