but that's the thing about buy and hold -- hold until WHEN?  Holding only during a bull market isn't buy and hold -- its trend following, which is trading, just on a longer time-frame.  Unless you consider yourself a trader, not a buy-and-hold investor, and are ready to take profits at the end of the bull market, you'll hold right into the next bear market and lose money..................Anyone following buy and hold for the past ten years has lost money.  How can that have worked better for anyone?   Depending on how you choose your time spans, bonds have outperformed stocks again and again over the past 35 years.   Buy and hold is literally a myth.