Visa's durable moat and current valuation support a long-term buy-and-hold thesis.

The first of these companies that I will highlight is Visa. This company's competitive advantage starts with its network. It has spent decades building a two-way network with consumers who hold Visa cards, both digitally and physically , and merchants who accept Visa cards as a means of payment.

Now, the total number of cards issued has exceeded 4 billion cards worldwide. So, as a merchant, you are almost obliged to accept Visa as a payment method because you don't want to miss out on dealing with billions of individuals who have Visa cards in their wallets or on their phones.

For this reason, merchants are forced to accept it as a means of payment.

The more merchants that accept Visa as a payment method, the more attractive it becomes for consumers to have a Visa card in their wallets. This is a positive, constructive cycle that has been feeding itself for decades, and it is very difficult for competitors to break into it outside of what is currently available in the industry, and that is another positive thing.

Visa, Mastercard, and whoever else is competing in this sector, the competition is not very intense. For decades they worked against each other, competed with each other, and have now reached a balance where almost everyone imposes similar prices on traders.

There is no significant difference between the various payment processing service providers.

Thus, there is a balance in the industry, which is very profitable for investors. Visa and Mastercard are among the most profitable companies in the world if you look at their operating profit margins over the past decade.

In fact, their competition is so weak that regulators have accused them of colluding with each other to maintain high prices for what they impose on traders. The other risk is innovation.

That someone comes from where we don't know or from completely outside the field to snatch a market share from Visa, Mastercard and existing companies.

This is one of the biggest current risks facing these companies, especially if you are looking far ahead over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.

This is the greatest danger that comes from innovators . But one of the things that makes this extremely difficult is that this is a very small part of business expenses . I sell my book on my website and accept payment via Visa, Mastercard and other payment methods.

It is a relatively small expense . I think I'm paying...and my book only costs $10, so the small fixed fees added to the percentage fees may amount to about 4% of my total sales, which is the amount I pay to Visa and Mastercard to process these transactions.

Therefore, 4% is not an incredibly large amount of my total business expenses. If, say, a stablecoin provider or a cryptocurrency payment provider came to me and said: Would you be willing to accept our system as a means of payment?

I would probably say no , because the time it would take to implement and streamline this new payment processor would not be worthwhile for me.

I mean, what are they going to charge me, right? Instead of 4%, will they offer me transaction fees of 1% or 2%? Am I going to cut into my already busy day to integrate a new payment method in order to save 2%? I won't do that, will I?

Many entrepreneurs and business owners will feel the same way. It's not a big expense in the overall scheme of things. You wouldn't want to take the time to get a new payment method to save 1% or 2% of your total expenses, even if you pay a large sum overall to these companies.

Of course, large companies pay lower fees to Visa and Mastercard because they are able to negotiate a lower percentage, and the nominal fees are a smaller percentage of the total factors.

Therefore, for these reasons, I feel confident in Visa's sustainable competitive advantage, or the permanence of its competitive advantage, and I believe this is a stock you can buy now and hold forever.

Actually, I own Visa shares. I've owned it for years. And I plan to own it for many years to come, for sure.

By the way, if you are interested in the valuation, I have calculated the fair value of the stock at $387, and the current market price is $378. Thus, you get a fair price for Visa stock today, and I would argue that it is one of the best companies globally .

If you get a company of this caliber at a fair price, I think it's an excellent deal for long-term investment.