Stock Market Glossary

Buy and hold

Long-term investment strategy without active trading.

In brief: Long-term investment strategy without active trading.

Meaning in practice

Buy-and-hold investors buy broadly diversified assets (often ETFs) and hold them for decades. Advantages: low costs, low tax burden, benefit from the compound interest effect. Prerequisite: emotional discipline to persevere even through crashes.

Context for investors and traders

For investors, the term becomes practical in the context of objectives, time horizon, risk capacity and costs. A suitable solution can differ between two people even when they consider the same product or metric.

How to use this in practice

Use the term first to describe the situation and add verifiable data: time frame, benchmark, costs and liquidity. Only then does it become an assessment that can be connected to an investment objective and risk budget.

What to keep in mind

Avoid false precision. Many market terms describe probabilities or historical patterns; they neither guarantee a return nor replace the review of a specific security.

Common questions

What does Buy and hold mean in simple terms?

Long-term investment strategy without active trading.

When is this term relevant to investors?

Check how the term affects portfolio weights, ongoing costs or total risk. Clear target allocations and regular, non-reactive reviews can help.

What should I check before acting on Buy and hold?

Avoid false precision. Many market terms describe probabilities or historical patterns; they neither guarantee a return nor replace the review of a specific security.

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