“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a five year holding period possibly?
Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Amazon.com Inc (NASD: AMZN) back in 2019: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full five year investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 5 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.
| Start date: | 05/01/2019 |
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| End date: | 04/30/2024 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $95.58 | ||||
| End price/share: | $175.00 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 104.62 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 104.62 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 83.09% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 12.85% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $18,308.45 | ||||
As we can see, the five year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 12.85%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $18,308.45 today (as of 04/30/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 83.09% (something to think about: how might AMZN shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“I learned early that there is nothing new in Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again. I’ve never forgotten that.” — Jesse Livermore
