Obviously you have to watch the numbers. Think I mentioned that…
For your example, I got pricing in the 90s. So…if you had Lucent in 1996 at $45, you could have sold it in early 1999 for $110. I didn’t follow Lucent, and don’t know what turmoil was going on. If I owned the stock, I would have.
For COST, I follow the company. So far, the numbers are good. If that changes, I would sell.
Unless your point is that an individual stock is not “buy and forget”. You can do that with an index, but it is extremely hazardous for an individual stock. The point I was addressing is that it is pretty easy to beat the market. Maybe not like Saul, but you can beat it by a several percent just choosing (and watching!!) a few quality companies.
And I added the caveat that I wouldn’t recommend owning one stock, nor do I do it.