Hi, my name is Kija and I'm a newb!

First - I'm totally loving this site. I don't feel so anxious looking at all of this information as I am when I look at it in the "real world". Thanks for a great tool.

Second - How do you decide when to sell? I searched the articles and the best I got is lay out a plan (like 10%) and stick to it. But I don't even have a plan. I'm up $74 on one of my stocks and all giddy about it and have no clue should I take the money in run, or keep going to the 10% or make a different goal - like 5%.

Any advice on what depicts a person looking to make a 5% gain from a person looking to make a 50% gain would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Kija the Newb.

It all boils down to what type of investor you are, what your risk tolerance level is, and what your research is telling you.

If you're a day-trader, you might consider selling the stock at the end of the day if it is making a profit.  On the other hand, if you're a swing-investor or a long-term investor, you may consider doing some market research on the particular stock (e.g. technical analysis) to see what the long-term trend for the stock is.  If the research tells you that the company is doing well, then consider holding onto the stock (but also setting a stop loss to protect a certain amount of your profits).  On the contrary, if your research indicates that the stock is heading towards a downtrend, then consider selling out and moving on to another investment.

I'm relatively new at this as well, but there are some great articles on here and also on several other websites (e.g. www.investopedia.com) which are definately helpful!

Good luck!

 I usually sell if I can get 50%....most of the time, I will put a stop loss to prevent from losing too much money

 Level 2 helps me determine when to sell.

 first of all never sell for under 20 dollars, because this is how much you pay in trading fees.

second of all look at charts to see if your stocks are doing well, if so letting them rise to a profit of a few thousand dollars is a good idea; if not, anything over twenty is good enough just sell!

if your losing money try not to sell, wait till the price comes back (could take years)

 

Love your answer.  Sell over $20.00 or over a few thousand dollars.

Meaning you pick your own way of taking profits and cutting your loses.

 

 anyhting positive is good i'd say

It would mostly depend on the company, if its going BK and everything be wipe out, then sell asap, take a giant loss and move on.  Getting something back is better than nothing

I agree, anything positive is a good.  But I try not to lose too much on any trade.

 There is a number of ways to take a profit. some people do it by percentage, meaning if they make 20% they are out. Some use  fibonacci estimates or ABC calculation where A to B will Equal C to D, the idea being you buy between C and B and take your profit at D (You  will need to do a search on this to understand it completely) but then there are the stocks that you want to let it ride and only sell when the stock give you the sell signals that you are using.  Check out the book How I made $2,000,000 in the stock markey by Darvis.  He had a very good method of when to sell.

Great tip

Thanks for the info.  Very good points.

mjhadad:

 first of all never sell for under 20 dollars, because this is how much you pay in trading fees.

 

 

 

I'd like to clarify, that means $20 gain in total throughout all your shares of that stock, and not $20 in gain per share of the stock.

Example: I buy XYZ at $1.00 and it goes up to $2.00. I bought 20 shares. I've just gained $20, but I really only broke even because I paid $20 in fees. I should wait for further gains before I sell.

Meanwhile, I bought ABC at $1.00 and it has gone up to $21.00. I bought 20 shares. I just gained $400 - $20 in fees (assuming I bought all 20 shares in one trade) so I've made a profit of $380.

Bottomline, go dive in and just do it. After several months of practice, you'll get a feel of what feels right to you, and develop some personal methodologies. Researching all the different methods out there will help you improve, but research is only as good as how much you practice it.

 But what if you were completely wrong and you dont get any profit and it starts to go against you. You still wouldn't sell under $20?

GCMan:

 But what if you were completely wrong and you dont get any profit and it starts to go against you. You still wouldn't sell under $20?

 

  I'll admit that I lean a little bit more to the long term side, than the short term. When a stock is sliding down the slope, I usually err on the side of beleiving that it will eventually rise again. I've been practicing day trading to learn new skills, but none the less, my gut tends to lead me to hold rather than sell during a slide. Maybe that's a mistake.

Well, I like to sell when I know the market will drop and my stocks will go down. The reason is, I can make a profit when it starts to go down, and then when it stops dropping I buy it again when it is lower and let it build up again and then sellit to make 2x the money. I know my friends try to wait it out, but when i do what i do, i make the money!

 Sounds like you're a bear-bull.

Excellent way to trade IMO

 I think there are many ways to make money in the market so if you can stomach when a stock goes against you and hold until it goes back up, there is nothing wrong with that!

When I am scalping or trading a trend, I basically wait for a move that i believe is going to counter the trend. Forget the sell when you make 20 dollars rules. Doing this will ensure your losses grow much bigger than they should be. Sell when the charts tell you to sell. If you don't know when this is, read up as much as you can on TA