If you're looking for winning stocks that you can buy and hold forever -- or at least for a very long time -- you need to choose carefully. Few companies are built to prosper for many decades due to changing consumer tastes and continuous technological innovation.
Two top stocks that have what takes to be "forever stocks" are e-commerce and cloud computing leader Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and leading U.S. water utility American Water Works (NYSE: AWK).
Notice a trend? Yep, both are the leaders in their respective primary markets. There are usually good reasons that companies have emerged as the top dog in their markets -- and winners tend to keep winning.