When to Sell - 2

The most common question I'm asked is when to sell - well after "Which is the best share?" Its a very difficult one to answer as we are all very precious about our purchases and to sell the share often means we were wrong to purchase them - and that's something we don't like to admit.

So, my strategy is based around the answers to the following 2 questions, assume you've bought £5000 worth of stock in company X, so its 5000 shares at £1 each

Q1a After a couple of weeks the share has gone up to £1.10 (i.e. +10%), do you Sell(S) and take the profit, Buy(B) some more as its going up or Leave ((L) and see what happens?
Q1b After a further couple of weeks the share has gone up to £1.20 (i.e. +20%), do you S, B or L?
Q1c After a further couple of weeks the share has gone up to £1.50 (i.e. +50%), do you S, B or L?

Q2a Starting from £1 per share purchase, after a couple of weeks the share has gone down to £0.90 (i.e. -10%), do you Sell(S) and take the hit, Buy(B) some more as its now cheaper or Leave ((L) and see what happens?
Q2b After a further couple of weeks the share has gone down to £0.80 (i.e. -20%), do you S, B or L?
Q2c After a further couple of weeks the share has gone down to £0.50 (i.e. -50%), do you S, B or L?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but I have built my investment strategy around my answers to the above. I'll let you know my answers in tomorrow's blog.

When to sell - 1

Wed 16 Oct

A good day, weather fine, a few frames of snooker, Body Pump class,  a few hours of gardening and a couple of hours of ballroom dancing, nowhere near Strictly level, but still good fun.

My neighbour S told me that he's just sold shares in a company and made a 50% profit, and that he's very pleased about that. The only problem is that all his remaining shares are in the red.

Hmm I said, that means you have sold your winner(s) and retained your losers, that's not quite the right way foreward.

So what is the right way? When should you sell your shares? Tomorrow I'll ask you a couple of very simple questions that will hopefully get you thinking about this problem.

There are no right answers or wrong answers, however I've based my sell strategy around my answers to these 2 questons.

Happy Investing

S

First Post

Tues Oct 15

Well this is a new challenge, my first ever blog, you'll have to forgive my silly mistakes as I learn the ropes.

I've just returned from the gym, a weights session, switched on the box and can see that the market is down -0.4%, when I left a couple of hours ago it was +0.25%, what happened whilst I was out?

I use Hargreaves Lansdowne (HL) as my broker, and their ticker says "Stocks rise amid renewed Brexit deal optimism" - huh?

I don't deal in Unit Trusts, I deem them to be rather opaque, instead I'm into stocks, Investment Trusts (ITs) and ETFs - at least I can see what the price is when buying and selling.

I see that Woodford Patient Capital has had another torrid day, oh how the mighty have fallen! I've also read today that his unit trust is to close down, glad that I didn't fall for all that "superstar" hype a year or two ago.

I was made redundant about 8 years ago, I was a database designer and data analyst, and I now have my own database with 8 years worth of UK stock prices and my own stock analysis tools, which I use to make purchasing and selling decisions, yes, I am a bit of a data geek, but Mr Market has provided me with a good standard of living for the last 8 years, so maybe something is working - or is it a case of when the tide comes in, all of the ships in the harbour rise. I'm sure that time will tell which one is applicable to my style of investing.

I aim to tell you all of my investment decisions and the whys and whens, so if you are reading this and have got this far, then thank you and I hope to see you again soon.