Why buy and hold is still the best strategy in the game-WSJ

WSJ

Some of the biggest winners of the market’s wild ride this year are those stock investors who stood their ground

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When the trade war tanked the market last month and left even seasoned Wall Street pros scrambling, Andrew Skillman kept his cool.

Skillman, a Santa Fe, N.M., resident whose portfolio is split between stocks and bonds, stood pat throughout the market gyrations of early 2025. “I never panicked,” the 60-year-old investor said. “Timing the market is fruitless. No one has a crystal ball.”

He and other investors with an equally steely resolve are being rewarded in a big way. President Trump’s easing of his harsh tariff policies has stoked a comeback in stocks, with major indexes recovering their losses since he rolled out his plans on April 2. Monday’s gains came after news that the U.S. and China had slashed tariffs amid fresh trade negotiations.

To get to this point, investors such as Skillman had to absorb—or ignore—a lot of bad news. The Nasdaq Composite Index at one point entered bear-market territory. April was headed for its worst month since 1932 until the turnaround happened.

Some traders sought to make the most of the volatile stretch, moving in and out of the market. Others, concerned that the trade conflict would lead the U.S. economy into a recession, took the opportunity to sell stocks and other riskier assets. This year, though, the biggest winners might have been those who did nothing at all.

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For fund investors, the S&P is up >11% at 52 weeks and off <1.5% YTD. The only people that lost their butts in the "tariff war" were those who drank the koolaid on Liberation Day being October 1929. That was a nice "Orange Man Bad" talking point for leftist shills, but it served their minions poorly.