..it is this thread's contention that Buy and Hold or Long Term...

..it is this thread's contention that Buy and Hold or Long Term Investing only works up to a certain point, beyond which they can underperform over an extended period of time.

..to prove on that, I have itemised 11 stocks in the first table below which included some of once well regarded high growth stocks that have underperformed badly, with their stock price still underwater by between -10% to -63% over a period of just over 6.5 years.

..BHP too had an extended period of underperformance from its peak of Nov 2007 which saw that peak never to be re-visited until almost 12 years later in July 2019.

..the second table shows stocks that have lagged despite ASX making recent all time highs, they have lagged since 1.5 years ago and they could go on to join the first table in the years ahead.

..Using the ASX200 index or XJO to show that stocks only perform higher over time is complete falsehood, because over time the index get rebalanced to exclude or drop out the laggard stocks. For instance, LTR is no longer part of ASX200 but it was 1.5 years ago. So over two timeframes from a 1.5 year ago, you are not comparing apples to apples.

..Hence the stock indices are not a real representation of a basket of stocks that make up the original portfolio. If you start believing that good quality stocks must perform better over time, then you are just being blindsided by just looking at the indices.
The reality is very different - RHC is a good quality company , so is Woodside, so is Westpac, so is Seek, but that alone did not guarantee that their stock price would continue to be moving higher to the top right.

...If you want to invest for the long term, don't put your blinkers on. It is important to understand the valuation your company is at relative to its future growth outlook and macro conditions in the economy and markets. Not all stocks are made equally - cyclical stocks perform well during booms and they suffer considerably during bust. If you want to ride a stock like WDS and still sitting on -10% after 6.5 years just having dividends without capital growth, then you are riding on a suboptimal asset, the opportunity cost is what you could well do with your funds in other stocks and/or asset classes that deliver better returns.

..Holding to a Dog (and Dead) Stock is on my count one of the worst thing one can do in markets. Because of reluctance to take a loss. If you can't take loss, or having taken a loss drives you into a state of immobility, then IMO you should not be in the market. Because Doing Nothing Is Doing Something.

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6	Column 7
0		Code	Company	6.5 yrs ago 8/11/2017		24/07/2024	% chg
1	1	MFG	Magellan Financial	$    25.91		$   9.64	-62.8%
2	2	RHC	Ramsay Health Care Ltd	$    67.05		$    46.62	-30.5%
3	3	DXS	Dexus	$ 9.66		$   6.75	-30.1%
4	4	TAH	Tabcorp Holdings Ltd	$ 0.94		$   0.68	-27.6%
5	5	SCG	Scentre Group	$ 4.13		$   3.30	-20.1%
6	6	MGR	Mirvac Group	$ 2.43		$   2.06	-15.2%
7	7	APA	APA Group	$ 8.91		$   7.83	-12.1%
8	8	WDS	Woodside Petroleum Ltd	$    30.44		$    27.24	-10.5%
9	9	WBC	Westpac Banking Corporation	$    31.85		$    28.53	-10.4%
10	10	S32	SOUTH32 Ltd	$ 3.30		$   2.96	-10.3%
11	11	IAG	Insurance Australia Group Ltd	$ 7.09		$   7.08	-0.1%
12
13		Code	Company	1.5 years ago 8/11/2022		24/07/2024	% chg
14	1	CXO	Core Lithium	$ 1.50		$    0.094	-93.7%
15	2	LTR	Liontown Resources	$ 1.95		$   0.97	-50.5%
16	3	PLS	Pilbara Minerals	$ 5.43		$   2.89	-46.8%
17	4	MIN	Mineral Resources	$    79.11		$    52.66	-33.4%
18	5	SHL	Sonic Healthcare Ltd	$    32.41		$    26.48	-18.3%
19	6	AMC	Amcor Plc	$    17.28		$    15.24	-11.8%
20	7	ASX	ASX Ltd	$    68.88		$    64.16	-6.9%
21	8	SEK	Seek Ltd	$    21.80		$    20.54	-5.8%
22	9	TCL	Transurban Group	$    13.63		$    12.88	-5.5%
23	10	RMD	Resmed Inc	$    32.57		$    31.65	-2.8%
24	11	TLS	Telstra Corporation Ltd	$ 3.94		$   3.90	-1.0%