Jay Bowen on long-term investing

Q: You describe your strategy as “endurance investing.”  How long do you typically look to hold a stock? 

A: We always feel like we are taking a 20-year investment approach.  With 20 years, you can measure the competency of an investor.  A lot of people can look good in bull markets or bear markets if positioned properly.  But over a 20-year time horizon, you’re likely to have bull and bear markets, a recession, wars, and bubbles.  Our investors have bought into this approach.

~ Harold "Jay" Bowen III, "How ‘Endurance Investing’ Produced 50 Years of Market-Beating Returns for This Tampa Pension Plan," Barron's, July 19, 2025

 

Edwin Dorsey on the importance of long-term thinking in business

The single idea, and we've touched on this a little bit, is I believe there's a lot of things that businesses can do to make the numbers better in the short-term, but hurt the long-term value.  You can raise prices, you can make it more difficult to cancel, you can make it more difficult to get refunds, you can cut corners on content moderation.  All these things help the numbers in the short-term, so they make the stock more attractive in the short-term while harming long-term value.  And seeing that disconnect when it occurs is where I think a lot of investors can profit.

The final idea is businesses can easily do things that help the short-term numbers and hurt long-term value.

~ Edwin Dorsey, "Simple Yet Powerful Tips for Short Selling - Exposing the Red Flags," Stansberry Investor Hour, 57:30 mark, November 4, 2024

Kevin Duffy on being a long-term investor

As a long-term investor, I get far more excited about the quality and number of seeds being planted than the size of the annual harvest.

~ Kevin Duffy, "Portfolio Review," The Coffee Can Portfolio, pp. 15-16, October 22, 2024

Austin Root on the 10-10-20 test for buying a stock

Before you buy your next stock, I want you to put it through the 10-10-20 Test.  To do so, you need to ask yourself three questions... 

1. Do I think this company is highly likely to be a bigger, more profitable enterprise in 10 years? 

2. Do I know this company's business model well enough to explain it to a 10-year-old? 

3. Am I comfortable putting at least 20% of my entire net worth into this stock? 

If you can answer "yes" to all three questions, congratulations...  You are well on your way to identifying a wonderful long-term investment. 

Now, to be clear, I am NOT recommending that you actually put 20% of your worth into your next stock purchase.  But I AM suggesting that you use these heightened thresholds to add incremental discipline to your investment decisions. 

You need to… believe in the business’s growth prospects… truly understand what makes the business tick… and have conviction enough in the attractiveness of the investment opportunity that you’d be willing to bet BIG if you had to. 

Your capital is precious.  It demands high standards.

~ Austin Root, LinkedIn post, January 24, 2023

Chris Mayer on analyzing businesses and being patient

With every business there are a few key things to know.  Call it the essence of the business, call it the beating heart, call it the core engine… something!  Find out what those key things are and focus on them. 

Then, de-emphasize individual quarters, recent stock performance, earnings estimates, macro forecasts, and the like.  As much as possible, try to think like a private owner of a business.  Think of the stock you own as you would think of real estate; it’s something you plan to own for a long time and sell reluctantly.

~ Chris Mayer, "100-Bagger," December 7, 2022

Chris Mayer on the patience required of long-term investors

Holding on requires a belief in some future that is not here yet.  Pessimism focuses on known problems and what’s right in front of us.

~ Chris Mayer, "Hold Fast: Tips for 100 Baggers," May 9, 2022

Kaushal "Ken" Majmudar on investing process vs. outcome

Most investors who are fooled by randomness focus too much on outcome (i.e. historical experience grounded in statistics) and too little on process.  By focusing on outcome over process, you tend to become overactive, undisciplined and a follower – looking and finding short-term patterns to which you attribute often false significance.  You constantly attempt to move to greener pastures but rarely arrive at your destination or stay to enjoy your surroundings.  In investing as in life, most people overestimate what can be accomplished in one year and vastly underestimate what can be accomplished in ten years.

~ Kaushal "Ken" Majmudar, founder of Ridgewood Investments, 2005 Annual Letter to Clients, March 7,  2006

Dan Ferris on long-term investing

I think people can manage their own money.  However, they should recognize that it is a highly competitive playing field and you do need an edge.  And the lowest hanging fruit - I've said this many, many, many times - the easiest edge to get is simply to be patient and have a long-term horizon because... almost nobody does!

~ Dan Ferris, introduction to Simon Hallett interview, 10:45 mark, Stansberry Investor Hour, September 16, 2021

Charlie Munger on compounding

The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.

~ Charlie Munger

(As quoted by Chris Mayer, "The First Rule of Compunding," Woodlock House Family Capital blog, September 7, 2021.)

Tom Engle on trading

The biggest investing mistake is trying to out-trade a world of traders.

~ Tom Engle, The Motley Fool, "Interview with Tom Engle: Investing Legend," Chris Reining blog, 2015