when should I sell my stock?

Posted At : May 10, 2007 10:46 AM
Related Categories: money

When to sell my stock? The ultimate question for the stock market newbie like myself. I own 600 shares of just one stock. (outside of our family retirement stuff) I bought it a few years ago on a whim when it was very very low priced. Right now it is up about 800% and a great success. So when should I sell it? The price has gone up and down a bit, but overall it has climbed pretty consistently.

This is a tough call for me. I don't want to sell at the price right now, as I have seen it higher though not much higher. I don't want to put a sell order too high, for fear that it never makes it and starts to drop. Take my money and run? Wait it out? Pretend it doesn't exist and look at it again in two years? To be clear I don't need the cash right now. I will probably take the money and roll it into some mutual fund, IRA, etc. So there is no time pressure.

I am leaning towards selling it now and putting the money into a nice long term stable investment, but liquid enough so that if I need it as a down payment on another property I can do so easily.

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I'll buy it off you. I have $3.17, some old copies of The New Yorker and a Twizzler.

# Posted By Book Kitten | 5/10/07 9:32 AM

I would say there are two factors to consider:
1. Do you owe money to anything (Car, home, etc) Sometimes the emotional boost from being debt free is worth selling a few shares.
2. Do you think you will make more money by putting it in another fund.

# Posted By Phillip Senn | 5/10/07 1:41 PM

Hmm, good question on making more money elsewhere. No real way for me to know, and I suppose that is the classic problem. Right now I am thinking that until I know what I need to use the money for moving it to a more stable and safe fund would be prudent. I bought this stock at .90, and it is at 8.00 give or take. I was hoping to tell for $8.75 just to have something to look forward to, but really for 650 shares that isn't a lot given the risk that it could just drop. Just wished I had bought more...

# Posted By Joshua Cyr | 5/10/07 2:19 PM

IMHO: Sell that stuff! A stock trading at $8.00 and up 800% in a few years sounds volatile. Roll it into something a little safer now (like a Russell 2000 index fund, maybe), and you'll never have any regrets. Sit on it until some little scandal or another stock market bump sends it down to $4.00, and you'll be kicking yourself.

The real question is, when are you going to unload your hypothetical spam penny stocks? :-)

# Posted By Jeff | 5/11/07 6:30 PM

The funny thing is that it isn't any stock that was ever hyped. My father bought a stock for like .11 in a uranium mine company. it went to .4 and he told me about it. By the time I got to it it was .90. Damn it if only I bought at .11! At any rate I think I will sell soon and put it into something a bit more certain at being stable. Then I can use the funds if needed for investment into property, etc. FYI, its down at 7.80 right now. blast!

# Posted By Joshua | 5/11/07 6:36 PM

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