Compounding rewards duration and consistency, and both are more fragile than they look.
Compounding is not complicated arithmetic. What makes it difficult is leaving it undisturbed for long enough to matter.
Every interruption — a panic sale, an unnecessary realisation of gains, a fee layer — resets a portion of the curve.
The practical discipline is protecting the runway: a reserve that prevents forced selling, a policy that survives bad quarters, and attention to the costs that erode the rate.