The cost of waiting is rarely as cheap as it feels.

The most expensive thing many long-horizon investors do is wait. Wait for a better entry. Wait for the next correction. Wait for some specific external event to clarify the picture. The intuition behind waiting is that the next entry will be cheaper, the picture will be clearer, the conviction will be stronger. The math of waiting is consistently more punishing than the intuition suggests, and the reason is asymmetry.

Stocks compound at roughly 9-10% per year on average. That is the cost of being out of the market, every year, in expectation. A six-month wait for a better entry costs you roughly 4-5% in foregone return on average. If the better entry materializes (and it sometimes does) you might save 5-10% on the position. But if it does not (and it usually does not) you have paid 4-5% to gain nothing. The expected value of the wait is negative most of the time.

This week's grid has examples of positions where we did not wait, and a couple where we held off because the thesis genuinely depended on a specific event. The discipline is in knowing the difference. Most of the time, waiting is the cost masquerading as patience. Real patience is the work of holding through volatility once you are already in.