Buy and hold may not be to your benefit

I saw a comment about buy and hold today. This is what I thought after I had read "long term buy and hold is dead. " Long term buy and hold has apparently been to the benefit of many, many people. Unfortunately, the person putting up the money has not bee one of them. This crisis may be revealing the reality of the stock system that may not be of such great benefit to those saving for retirement in 401 k and mutual fund accounts. The banks,brokerages and funds have managed to make trillions, lose trillions, pay out trillions over the past decades and most long term investors are up, if they are up 10% give or take........?....Imagine how stimulating it would be to the economy if they could spend all the money they pay out in fees for getting this 10%. Yes I am being a bit cynical but those negative percentages that you mention were probably even more costly and more expensive. I am of the belief that we have set up a system that has as much to do with Momentum and psychology of the large fund managers as it does with fundamentals. Everything is growth and rising market. Our economy can not function long without the "real or imaginary" gains that creates wealth. I just don't understand how people can be so anti real estate because of the so called "imaginary gains" when the stock market is exactly the same. What is so different about a stock jumping 5 one day and down 10 the next because another "comparable company" did poorly. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.....geez...