Investing for the long run is important – but there's nothing wrong with a little speculation

Shunning short-term speculation in favour of investing for the long term is too simplistic, says David C Stevenson – and that has big implications for the funds you choose.

Conventional wisdom shuns short-term speculation in favour of long-term investing. But that might be too simplistic a picture and that has big implications for the funds you choose.

Most investors claim to be investing for the long run. But in reality, we often allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by short-term noise. The conventional wisdom says that this is a bad thing that long-term investing is good, while speculating in the short run is a mistake. And my gut feeling is that the conventional wisdom is right about this.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
David C. Stevenson
Contributor

David Stevenson has been writing the Financial Times Adventurous Investor column for nearly 15 years and is also a regular columnist for Citywire. He writes his own widely read Adventurous Investor SubStack newsletter at davidstevenson.substack.com

David has also had a successful career as a media entrepreneur setting up the big European fintech news and event outfit www.altfi.com as well as www.etfstream.com in the asset management space. 

Before that, he was a founding partner in the Rocket Science Group, a successful corporate comms business. 

David has also written a number of books on investing, funds, ETFs, and stock picking and is currently a non-executive director on a number of stockmarket-listed funds including Gresham House Energy Storage and the Aurora Investment Trust. 

In what remains of his spare time he is a presiding justice on the Southampton magistrates bench.