Long Term Investing: My Strategies and Past Trades
I met a former investment banker once. He told me that the greatest asset is time, and it is important to hold long positions to make money. This is by far the best way to invest, and in unstable markets, I will be usually riding everything out, but sometimes, I will be buying stocks/ETF's etc that I will only be holding for short term, so I can still make money when the market is rough.
Right now, I am trying to diversify (spread out) my investments as my main strategy. I will be using a formula I created to analyze stocks along with other pieces of information from the stock to determine how overvalued or undervalued it is, and I will be selecting the strongest stock or stocks from each financial sector (section of the economy) to invest in. I will then spread out the money evenly across each stock (except for the risker ones--I'll invest less in those). My investments sector by sector are further down the page if I choose to use this strategy. I will reevaluate my investments in every sector after every earnings report.
The formula that I created to analyze stocks at a basic level is: (earnings per share in the last year ➗ share price) x (daily average volume ➗ short interest in shares). A higher result is better, and I noticed that a result of about 0.02 is decent. In the case of First Solar (a stock that I bought earlier--look below), I got a result from the formula of about 0.076 around the time I bought it. As you can see, the result from that was definitely there (37% in just a couple months while the S&P 500 only went up a couple percent). Also, I will be using some other metrics such as the debt-to-equity ratio (it measures how much debt the company is against how much they have in cash or things that can be turned into cash, so obviously you don't want a to invest in a stock with a ton of debt ). Also, it's really important to also take into account what kind of business the company is in. Like if it's a biotech or AI stock, it may have more debt because they are spending a lot of money on building their business for the future. In those stocks, it's also good to know that price is mostly speculative, meaning that the price is based largely on what people expect to come from what the company will do in the future (and since a lot of future business is focused on AI, those prices would be a bit inflated in the present). I also analyzing the company's future using news and financial reports. For example, I bought a stock called NXE (see below). I found the stock by researching stocks in uranium/nuclear energy because I saw that the USA was going to ramping up investments into nuclear energy, and there was going to be a shortage in uranium. For financial reports, I see how financially healthy the company is, and I also read the part where heads of the company write future goals and plans for the business.
Also, it's really important to also take into account what kind of business the company is in. Like if it's a biotech or AI stock, it may have more debt because they are spending a lot of money on building their business for the future. In those stocks, it's also good to know that price is mostly speculative, meaning that the price is based largely on what people expect to come from what the company will do in the future (and since a lot of future business is focused on AI, those prices would be a bit inflated in the present).
Here is my current portfolio/updates:
I see that there is so much instability across the world right now that could cause the market to crash or shoot up at any moment, so I am researching some stocks that I believe will do well in the next year to two and are mostly unaffected by the world events.
1. I bought Wave Life Sciences (WVE). First, I bought some on January 23 (2026) at $13.40 a share, then I bought some more on January 28 at $13.07. WVE edits genes, and it is planning to roll out two of its RNA drugs by the end of 2026, both of which look promising in trials. However, the stock has dropped about 20% in the last month, and I think that it can rebound if the drugs get approved. It also remains in a good financial position, with a few hundred million dollars in cash. On 3/25/26, it dropped about 50% on worries about its new drugs in trials compared to similar companies’ progress. I don’t think that it was actually a problem, since Wave used stricter sample sizes compared to other companies’ trials. It has rebounded about 18% by 5/4/26. And when they released their earnings for the quarter on May 1, they beat analysts’ expected revenue by over 300%. Although there was still a net loss in the quarter, they still beat expectations by a lot in net earnings. Analysts are also holding buy to strong buy ratings on the stock. I bought even more on 4/29/26 at $6.98 a share.
2. I am holding Nexgen Energy (NXE). First, the US government is heavily supporting nuclear power. NXE is beginning construction on a mine that may help the company supply about 20% of the world’s uranium within the next few years. So this is definitely a longer term play. The company is in debt as well, but with a debt to equity ratio of less than one, it is in a healthy place. Even though it will take a couple of years for the stock to become profitable, it is working on building its main rook I mine, and it has already secured US customers as well as negotiating in Europe, the US, and Asia. I bought some on January 23 (2026) at $12.59 a share and some more on January 30 at $12.96 a share. On May 1, it beat analyst expectations for earnings by $0.01, and it now has final government approval for the mine’s construction. It’s also holding $1 billion in cash, so it’s in a stable financial position.
Even though these stocks will take a bit of waiting to make some money on, I will still not be selling them. It is important to be able to ride out rough patches in the market.
Here's a couple concepts to be familiar with when it comes to long term trading:
Dollar cost averaging: when the price of one of your stock picks drops and your trade is negative, you don't have to just fully wait for it to go back up. You can buy some more of the stock to lower your average cost. Let's say a stock you bought a share of at $10 drops to $9. You can buy another share at $9, and your average cost per share would then by $9.50. If price goes up to $10.50, then you made $2 instead of the $0.50 you would have made if you didn't buy more.
Timing the market: Traders regular struggle with timing the market, or knowing when to enter or exit trades (buy or sell). You can time the market by either just not being greedy and taking your gains or by targeting specific support/resistance levels (look at the short term investing page for an explanation on what those are). If price is nearing a big support or resistance level on the 1 day candle time frame, then you may want to sell (if you don't plan on holding for a while), since you don't know if price will break through the level or sweep it.
Buying ahead of earnings strategy: Companies release their financial information including their earnings in the last quarter 4 times a year. Sometimes traders buy right ahead of a stock's earnings release to time their trade. If you've done your research (based on news surrounding the stock and if they have beat their earnings expectations in the past) and think that a stock will have strong earnings for the quarter, then it may smart to buy right before earnings are released, which usually causes large price swings in every stock and you can capitalize off the positive change early.
Here are my past trades using my strategies from most to least recent:
1. I bought NVIDIA (NVDA) on 10/22/25 at $177.40 a share. NVIDIA shares (and the whole market) was down quite a bit that day, and I thought that it would be a great time to buy NVIDIA ahead of its Washington DC conference from 10/27-10/29 where they would announce a lot of their new technology. This was a very good short-term buy, and I ended up selling my shares at $210.24 the morning of 10/29.
2. I invested in First Solar (FSLR) as a stock in the energy sector. According to a bunch of my research, solar power is one of the best energy sources for the future, so I decided to buy a solar power stock. Out of 10 of the largest solar power companies I analyzed, First Solar was the best stock to buy according to my formula. I bought it on 8/26/25 at $196.71 a share. I sold it on 11/05/25 at $269.78 a share, which is a 37% gain.
3. I invested in Vale (VALE) as a stock in the materials sector. Vale is a company based in South America, and it mines metals. Vale has super high earnings per share (the company's profits divided across each of the shares) considering how low its share price is. This is shown through the really low P/E (price to earnings) ratio, which is used to show how overvalued or undervalued a stock is, and Vale is undervalued. I bought it on 8/26/25 at $10.18 a share. I sold it on 11/05/25 at $12.14 a share, which is a 19% gain.
4. I invested in UPS (UPS) as a stock in the industrials sector. UPS delivers packages, and just like Vale, it has really high earnings per share for its stock price. I bought UPS on 8/26/25 at $87.40, and I sold it on 11/05/25 at $92.31, which is about a 5.5% gain.
5. I bought some Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) stock. It is a well-established pharmaceutical company that makes a variety of medicines, and its shares are trading way below where it should be. I bought it at $43.60 a share on 10/13/25, and I sold it on 11/05/25 at $45.97 a share, which is about a 5.5% gain.