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“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

— Warren Buffett

The wisdom of Warren Buffett reflects a value-based philosophy about investing that says investors are buying shares in a business, and encourages strategic thinking about investment time horizon. Before placing a buy order for a stock, a great question we can ask is whether we would still be comfortable making the investment if we couldn’t sell it for many years?

A “buy-and-hold” approach may call for a time horizon that spans a long period of time — maybe even lasting for a five year holding period. Suppose such a “buy-and-hold” investor had looked into buying shares of Cadence Design Systems Inc (NASD: CDNS) back in 2014. Let’s take a look at how such an investment would have worked out for that buy-and-hold investor:

Start date: 10/23/2014
$10,000

10/23/2014
$37,646

10/22/2019
End date: 10/22/2019
Start price/share: $16.72
End price/share: $62.94
Starting shares: 598.09
Ending shares: 598.09
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 276.44%
Average annual return: 30.36%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $37,646.25

The above analysis shows the five year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 30.36%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $37,646.25 today (as of 10/22/2019). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 276.44% (something to think about: how might CDNS shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“Sometimes buying early on the way down looks like being wrong, but it isn’t.” — Seth Klarman