Long-Haul Investing

It's nearly 3,000 years since Aesop first told the story of the tortoise and the hare. And a lot of investors still don't get it.

Last week, someone who was invested in a successful long-term mutual fund emailed to ask if she should sell it because it had a bad year. She's not alone. All the data show that lots of people jump out of funds when they have a bad run and jump into those that have done well for a couple of years, or even a couple of quarters.

The data also show that most ordinary investors have done far, far worse over time than those who just stuck their money in an index fund and forgot about it. The numbers aren't even close. ...