The strategy behind long term investing is to hold on to stocks for a period of more than three years, or possibly more than five years.
Three years or five years sounds like a long period when one dives into the stock market. That's because most investors are looking to make a killing in the short term.
But that's the difference between a trader and an investor.
There are retail investors who choose to invest in fundamentally strong stocks and remain invested for the long haul. This can even mean a period of 3, 5, 10 or more years.