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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— Warren Buffett

One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a decade-long holding period for an investor who was considering Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASD: AMD) back in 2015, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.

Start date: 06/02/2015
$10,000

06/02/2015
  $481,523

05/30/2025
End date: 05/30/2025
Start price/share: $2.30
End price/share: $110.73
Starting shares: 4,347.83
Ending shares: 4,347.83
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 4,714.35%
Average annual return: 47.32%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $481,523.07

The above analysis shows the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 47.32%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $481,523.07 today (as of 05/30/2025). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 4,714.35% (something to think about: how might AMD shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“If you have more than 120 or 130 I.Q. points, you can afford to give the rest away. You don’t need extraordinary intelligence to succeed as an investor.” — Warren Buffett