whenever equity markets crash voices calling for the longterm view come back there is an aura of nobility to longterm investing and many want to belong to that club but it is not easy whatever your view if you find your investments losing value soon after you have invested you cannot but regret the wrong timing as no one knows what is the bottom and only luck can ensure you catch it it is tough to invest in a falling market what does it take to be a longterm investor first longterm investing is more about ability than willingness you may have all the risk appetite and the fearless attitude to take chances with the marketbut if your financial position is such that you have to dip into the money you invested even before it can begin to perform it is tough to be longterm orientedit is important that you have sufficient income are able to save consistently indicating that you do not need all of the income you make and have enough assets to back you up if this round of investments turn bad you may like to take a longterm view but you wont be able to do it if your finances are shaky identify that portion of income that you can actu ally invest and forget about be honest second longterm investing is an attitude and a tough one to develop we cannot magically become someone else when it comes to money if we tend to be secretive suspicious controloriented and performancedriven failure of our investments will keep us anxious even if we are otherwise positive and optimistic we will hate our inability to do anything when the market crashes and erodes the value of what we have we may dislike ourselves for the choices we madewe may allow the loss to eat into our confidence we need to truly believe in positive longterm outcomes and not be eager to meddle too much third longterm investing requires a value orientation the dominant story in the indian equity markets is about small businesses that grow to become multibaggers in an economy like ours there is always the opportunity to solve a new problem and do well enough so that a large amount of wealth is created for promoters and investors therefore investing in growth stocks that show spec tacular potential even if at higher prices is a preferred route to investing fund managers are lauded for such findswe also love the run up in stock prices which makes momentum investing a favourite in all this noise the good stocks that do well over the longterm are not big heroes longterm investing needs a strong belief in value fourth selection is key it is not uncommon for investors to pick up something for a quick buck and then console themselves that over the longterm things would get better ipo investors who began with a very shortterm view of selling off on listing typically end up