Professional investors spend so much time justifying their existence.
But that's not all they don't want you to know.
Good investors take their time
At any moment, the 'experts' are eager for us to buy or sell something. The talking heads on Sky Business and fundies in The Australian Financial Review or investors in this column want you to act. Now.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are down – buy!
Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) shares are up – sell!
But the sad part about all of it is that no-one has ever made money from buying and selling anything – except your broker.
It doesn't matter whether you hold it for a second or a century, you will only ever make money from holding an investment.
But holding an investment isn't the only type of patience you need to be successful in the sharemarket.
You should also be patient in execution.
Patient when selling.
And – especially — patient when buying.
Like an 'overnight success in 10 years', the best investment returns take time.
For example, Warren Buffett is praised for his 'bold' investment in US bank Goldman Sachs during the GFC (I'll spare you the details — he made truckloads of money).
But what most people forget is that Buffett did not make a significant investment between September 11, 2001, and the GFC — more than six years apart!
No big investments. For six years.
Have you ever done that?
It's the little things
In investing, it's the little things that count.
The experts don't want you to know it.
But while they are busy collecting billions of dollars in management fees – only for 80% of them to do worse than the market — you can make tiny changes to your investing for enormous differences.
For example, over 20 years, the difference between a 7% and 8% annual return is a difference of almost 30% when you cash out your chips.
The little things are especially powerful because (see point one), good investors use time to their advantage.
As an added bonus: There are also tax advantages to adopting a long-term investment strategy.
Foolish Takeaway
The best investors know that one of the easiest ways to double your investment returns is to double your time horizon. That's another one the pros won't tell you.
