Investing in the long term

Investments are not meant for those looking for instant gratification.

- ANTONIO SAMSON

This "quick buck" mentality is discouraged by portfolio managers and investment advisers. Patience is a virtue not just for those emulating the biblical Job.

That story has much to teach the investor who can think of the long term. For Job, the early losses were gracefully accepted. The suffering was later reversed by his long-term view of life and rewarded with abundant blessings.

John Maynard Keynes, the father of the economics of demand management known as Keynesian theory, once said that "In the long run, we are all dead." This much-quoted passage from his work, "A Tract on Monetary Reform" (1923) does not really recommend a bias for a short-term perspective.

The quote is prefaced by a qualifier—"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs." He questioned the belief that a recession corrects itself in the long run without the need for government intervention with a change in fiscal policy, like ramping up government spending in public works.

Waiting for things to somehow sort themselves out eventually was not how long-term was defined.