“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 ten year holding period for an investor who was considering Amazon.com Inc (NASD: AMZN) back in 2010, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
Start date: | 05/12/2010 |
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End date: | 05/11/2020 | ||||
Start price/share: | $133.87 | ||||
End price/share: | $2,409.00 | ||||
Starting shares: | 74.70 | ||||
Ending shares: | 74.70 | ||||
Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
Total return: | 1,699.51% | ||||
Average annual return: | 33.49% | ||||
Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
Ending investment: | $179,959.48 |
As shown above, the ten year investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 33.49%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $179,959.48 today (as of 05/11/2020). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 1,699.51% (something to think about: how might AMZN shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
More investment wisdom to ponder:
“A risk-reward ratio is important, but so is an aggravation-satisfaction ratio.” — Muriel Siebert