Most retirement investors are on the watch for good “buy and hold” investments because a retirement account is not really a trading account.

Most retirement investing advisors constantly publish reminders that retirement accounts should not be treated as trading accounts.  Investors who panicked during the autumn stock market correction, found that by the time they felt comfortable buying back the shares they sold in mid-October, the prices had already risen above the prices at which they sold their shares.

When it comes to retirement investing, we regularly hear that the “golden rule” is to stick with Warren Buffett’s “buy and hold” strategy.  This approach demands that you should not let fear drive you out of your investments when the stock market (or even a particular investment) experiences a surprising decline.  This is why it helps to do a little research concerning how a particular stock or ETF withstood the autumn stock market correction and other major selloffs.  It is also useful to take a look at how a prospective candidate for your portfolio withstood – and rebounded from – the financial crisis.

Last week. I discussed how Vanguard founder John C. (“Jack”) Bogle preferred “passive” or index-based funds, rather than actively-managed funds.  His criticism of fund managers is based on the notion that managers add unnecessary expense for the investor and the track record for managed funds is no better than that of index-based funds.  Bogle dislikes ETFs because they tempt people to trade, rather than stick to the “buy and hold” investment strategy.

Nevertheless, Vanguard is currently a big player in the ETF business.  While many “buy and hold” aficionados recommend large-cap stocks for long-term investing, Vanguard has an ETF for those interested in making such a choice.  The Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:VUG) is designed to track the performance of the CRSP Large-Cap U.S. Growth Index.  In addition to whatever gains might be made with increases in this ETF’s share price, VUG also pays dividends.  Its annualized 30-day SEC yield is 1.25 percent, as of January 31, 2015.

The last word:  Retirement investors need to make their portfolio selections by considering only those investments which are desirable as “buy and hold” stocks or ETFs because of the likelihood of solid performance over the long term.