What is a Long-Term Investment?

From an investor’s point of view, long-term investing is investing by accepting the desired amount of risk in order to potentially get more returns. An investor who wants to invest long-term must hold on to his or her holdings for at least a year or more. Long-term investments carry less risk than short-term investments. The main reason for this is that investment instruments are not affected by market uncertainty to a great extent, in other words, they can be said to be stable. 

Long-Term Investment Advantages

Long-term investing has significant advantages for investors who are trying to take advantage of market timing that day traders on short terms do not benefit from. If we talk a little about the advantages of investment;
 

• Traders who choose to trade in the short term have to pay the set fees and commissions for each trade they make. In contrast, investors who choose to trade for the long term do not cover these specific fees that they do not trade continuously. Thanks to this situation, investors save a great deal.
• Unlike short-term investments, investors can create 2 different sources of income in long-term investments. The first is market capitalization. A profit is generated by the rise of the market value. The other is dividend yield. In other words, investors can earn double income as a result of long-term investments.
• Another advantage is that it is not affected by short-term price fluctuations. 
• In addition, one of the important factors of long-term investments is that all or part of the mistakes made can be corrected. The reason for this is that there is enough time. 

   

What Are the Strategies for Long-Term Investments?

First, one of the most important strategies for long-term investing is to stabilize the financial situation. In other words, if the investment is not in balance, it means focusing too much on  certain investment vehicles or continuing with an uncertain strategy. As a result, risks increase and investors can make huge losses. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate the investment instruments in a balanced way in the portfolio in order to ensure balance in investment. It aims to bring together the investments in a portfolio so that the risks and returns are at the same level, that is, to make a balanced investment.

Finally, being aware of and understanding the risks well can be considered as an important element when investing for the long term. Although long-term investment vehicles are known to carry lower risk than others, every investment vehicle carries risk. For example, stocks are often much more risky than bonds. For this reason, investors may choose to include a smaller proportion of stocks in their portfolios. When starting to invest, it is very important to compare the risk ratios of each investment vehicle and to be aware that almost all of them are risky.