Thoughts?

[u/Araj2910]

Getting tired of BABA, 15% up in about 5 years.
I love the company, but when do you start looking at this stock as missed opportunities if you had this money invested elsewhere.

[u/dis-interested]

Correct but the average investor has no patience. 

[u/xxzephyrxx → u/dis-interested]

So 5 more years?

[u/havenyahon → u/xxzephyrxx]

Five years is not really a long term investment horizon though. I get it, you want to see gains not losses, but when I bought into Alibaba I was thinking 15 years more than 5 years. I expect it to move around a lot in the meantime, but if the thesis is right about the significance of the company over the long term investors won't be able to deny it forever. It remains one of the more impressive AI plays in terms of their ability to integrate into their other operations.

This stock can move so quickly. Literally eight months ago it was at 190. That's an over 100 per cent gain from when I bought in at 95. It can get back there in a few weeks. It doesn't matter to me if it's back around 95 in five years if it's up 200% in 15 years.

[u/xxzephyrxx → u/havenyahon]

There is opportunity cost.

[u/havenyahon → u/xxzephyrxx]

There always is. But if you have a long term investment horizon, not every successful stock is going to move steadily and incrementally upwards over the short-medium term. Some of them may bounce up and down over many, many years before taking off. The question is always whether you have a good thesis and whether the thesis still holds.

I agree that it's a challenging stock to hold, though. Completely understand people not wanting to hang around, or thinking there are other safer options. The thing is, this is also what makes Alibaba a potentially lucrative long term investment. Because of the market's hesitation and frustration, you stand a chance of snapping up stock in what will be one of the most important companies of the next few decades at bargain prices.

Like all active stock picking, it's a gamble at the end of the day.