Long term investment is a sensible choice, if the odds are favorable. For company stocks, it is even the "right" strategy.
For company stocks in the U.S. in aggregate buy and hold is suicidal over the next 10 years while the demographic curve forces distribution.
This summer will be the first glimpse of reality peeping into the fed-induced bubble of unreality we have enjoyed for 5 years, but just a foreshadowing really.
Seems like the democrats are going to want to prop up the economic system, at least until after the November 2014 elections, no?
Can kicking only works until you run out of road, no matter how good you are at it. I expect a patch of cow trail coming up. My reasons are idiosyncratic, and most will not share them. They are also complex and ill-suited to a forum post. I apologize for providing such low-information content. The demographic curve and its correlation to p/e ratios is however both informative and easy to provenance.
You may be correct to the extent that you are suggesting that they cannot drag out until November, b/c depending upon your vehicle, it is still possible to make decent progress on a cow trail. Surely, there are a lot of balls in the air, and we are NOT always able to foresee various tricks up the sleeves. Many mixed metaphors, here... sorry about that.