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I'm not sure if institutional investors would ever hold positions for years on end.

This is extraordinarily common, particularly for institutional investors who are not attempting to generate alpha.

I think the main point being made by the author is that without the waiting, day after day, combined with the external confirmation bias of hearing how other stocks are outperforming yours (you thought you did great on your trade, until you hear Google could have made you multiples more); you are missing a ton of the statistical noise that screws up your trading.

Don't throw out the entire argument with nitpicking on a minor misunderstanding re: institutional trading. The main thrust of his argument is clearly valid.

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