Buying a good stock is easy, but can you hold?

IMAGINE this: You bought a stock for US$3.30 per share in January 2007. Five years later, the stock price soared to almost US$10. How would you feel about this investment?

Putting it in perspective, the gain would be more than 200 per cent or an impressive 25 per cent per year over this period. That return would put a smile on any investor’s face.

And that’s not all. During this time, the S&P 500 – the benchmark for the US stock market – lost almost 13 per cent of its value.