Never Sell Your Stocks
People love to dunk on diversification. They'll usually quote Warren Buffett, "diversification is protection against ignorance."
But I think it might actually be better than you think.
You see, many people want to be traders.
They want to come across unique ideas in the market that generate alpha.
But, they often make mistakes.
They buy too much.
They sell far too early.
They hold on far too long.
I'm here to tell you there is another way to consider.
And that is, to never sell your stocks.
Many of the biggest winners come from just holding strong. And, if you allow yourself to sell your stocks, you are going to sell your stocks.
That would have caused you to miss out on this epic run in $NVDA and $AMD over the last 10 years, with only $10k invested in each.
According to Stock Analysis, that $10k in $NVDA is now worth about $1.39 million. The $10k in $AMD is worth about $896k.
But it wasn't a straight line.
$NVDA doubled in its first 7 months, which is right where a lot of people take profits and walk away with $20k. Then it fell 56% in late 2018 and 66% in 2022. $AMD fell 65% in 2022, then another 63% from 2024 into 2025.
Every one of those drops gave you a great reason to sell.
Or take $MRNA. $10k at its IPO in December 2018 grew to $260k by August 2021.
Then it fell 95%.
Anyone still holding watched almost a quarter million dollars disappear. Today that same $10k is worth about $115k. That's 11x for doing absolutely nothing.
Sure, some of your picks won't work. $10k in $NKE 10 years ago is worth about $6,750 today.
That's fine. A stock can only go to zero once, but a winner can go up 100x.
If you took the 9 biggest winners and the 8 biggest losers in the S&P 500 over the last 10 years, put $10k in each, and never sold a single share, here's what you'd have:
The 8 losers lost $54k combined. $NVDA alone made over $1.3 million.
All 17 together turned $170k into $4.93 million. That same $170k in $VTI would be worth about $691k. $VTI is Vanguard's Total Stock Market ETF. It holds over 3,500 US companies, so it's basically the entire stock market in one fund, and it's what most people mean when they say "just buy the index."
Of course nobody could have picked that exact list back in 2016. But that's the point. The losses are capped and the winners aren't.
You see, finding great companies to buy at great prices really isn't all that hard (often buying after short term negative news that is overblown). The hard part is knowing how much to buy, and when to sell them.
By removing the latter, you are left with just one decision. How much should I buy...
And that, that is much easier than trying to time the perfect exit.
Think more like a private investor funding startups from seed through Series C.
They understand most will be worth next to nothing, but a few will be huge winners. And, that's the game they are playing for.
It's the game that is most fun.
Data from StockAnalysis.com through 10/13/26. This is not investment advice.