Investors put too much faith in the buy-and-hold stock investment strategy, says Thomas Kee, CEO of Stock Traders Daily.

It's large brokerage firms that push this thinking on their clients, he writes in a commentary for CNBC.

Kee says he has learned many disadvantages of that approach. "One of the flaws became obvious as the Internet bubble burst. If the market is irrationally exuberant, why shouldn't investors go to cash?" he asks.

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"The reason, at least as far as those big-name brokerage firms are concerned, is that if you go to cash they no longer earn fees on your money."

Most brokers are fee-based now, Kee notes.

"But that often depends on you being invested in something. If you are not invested, you do not generate fees for the firm, so the traditional approach of buy and hold is rooted in a practice that is largely rewarding to the business models of those firms."

Kee recommends that investors place some of their money in a "pro-active strategy" that can make money with the market moving in either direction.

But Sheraz Mian, director of research for Zacks, offers a defense of buy and hold on his firm's website.

"A buy and hold approach remains as relevant today as it ever has been. And notwithstanding naysayers' claims to the contrary, empirical evidence continues to show the long-term superiority of a buy and hold strategy over any other investing approach," Mian writes.

But buy and hold doesn't mean buy and forget, he says. Keep abreast of what's happening to your stocks.

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