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Buy-and-hold investing is the key to what makes many of the best investors great in the first place. If you had purchased shares of Amazon.com or Netflix a decade ago — and held on through today — then you’d be sitting on a significant chunk of change. While hindsight is 20/20, it’s important to acknowledge that buy-and-hold investing only works when you buy great companies, not just those with grandiose promises and slick investor presentations.

One way to uncover investment opportunities that fit the bill is to find trends with long-term sustainability, then find the best companies exploiting those trends. As the second decade of the 21st century comes to a close, two trends with staying power are the emerging dominance of American energy and the under-the-radar need for animal health products. That leads investors to Antero Midstream GP (NYSE:AMGP) and Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS), which, as it turns out, are two great stocks you can probably buy and hold forever.

Northeast natural gas production could double by 2021

The United States is on pace to become a net exporter of energy by 2022 — a remarkable turnaround given the last 50-plus years of energy trade imbalances. In fact, the trend will erase a massive trade deficit in energy products that peaked at $321 billion in 2011. While crude oil dominates the headlines in discussions of the topic, other energy products — such as natural gas liquids (NGLs) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) — should also be on the radar of individual investors in the long run.

Antero Midstream GP is all over the opportunity. Even better, investors soon will have a simpler way to own a piece of the business and collect a healthy dividend payment. In mid-October it was announced that…

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