One day in high school, perhaps in 1971, I was reading the financial section of the newspaper just before math class started. My math teacher came in, saw that

One day in high school, perhaps in 1971, I was reading the financial section of the newspaper just before math class started. My math teacher came in, saw that I was looking at the stock tables, and said something like: "I really like Philip Morris. I've made a lot of money in that stock over the years". Now, check out http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MO&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c= http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MO&t=my&l=on&z=l&q=l&c= Here are the splits in just that stock since 1974: 2 * 2 * 2 * 4 * 3 That doesn't include the spinoff of PM and KRFT (I don't recall if shareholders participated in Miller spinoff). And there may have been more spinoffs that I can't even remember. Now imagine how much money my math teacher's heirs would have today if they continued to hold his Philip Morris stock because they had "long term thinking". You might be right. Maybe the long term is over in tobacco stocks. But the previous half century has sure made some people a lot of money selling products that have killed millions of other people.