Well, I don't have full time job to start 401K , any other pension plan nor i have annuity,life insurance policies where I want to keep them for long time..normally i do short selling and but some stocks, i keep them around for some time around 6months-1 year depends on the so many factors like economy, trend and some research...Basically About long term, I keep them till I'm comfortable with them.. i got onto this stock thing as a competition and did simulating trading in ( Investopedia)for 6 months before i managed to put together some money to start. So far I'm not doing that bad..I spend about 1 or 1/2 hour everyday trying to do some reasearch and I have pool of stocks, which I constantly keep an eye on.. ..Now abt a year of experience along with classroom learning, i have to trust myself a little bit.. ..i just found out about this thread and it's really great ...kudooooos to all of u..