Hold or sell What would you do ?

[Octogirl]

We have held shares in a small speculative tech stock for 2 years and are now seeing it increase in value by 50%.
Trying to decide when to sell.
We set our objective at 50% increase but now tempted to see if we can squeeze more profit.
Anyone want to share good and bad experiences ?
(We only have a $4000 in it so its not going to break the bank if we lose)

 

[cyber888]

I say Sell, if its speculative. You could lose your gains quickly too.
It depends on your Risk tolerance.

 

[frayne]

Stick with your plan.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Sell enough to recoup your initial investment, & let the rest ride ?
I did something similar with MicroStrategy (a bitcoin play) recently.

The rest is, shall we say, house money so I'll let it ride

 

[Route246]

For myself I don't trade much in individual stocks anymore. Vast majority has been moved into SPY/VTI funds and ETF. One rule I have when I'm speculating/gambling on an individual stock is to stay disciplined and do not under any circumstances ever play a hunch or get greedy. I was able to do this with with F (Ford) at $12. My play was to buy at $11.99 and sell at $13.01. It was fun for awhile but I realized it was just a waste of cycles and time. I bought 1000 shares and made $1000 5 times. I put in orders for sells or buys and everything just happened automatically. I think I made 50% return over 3+ or so years on my $12K. It had nice oscillation. Problem is if it takes off either way you're out of action.

My advice is to depart with your profit, thank your lucky stars you made a profit and never look back on what coulda-bin. Coulda-bins and shoulda-bins are for losers.

Unless you like being in action, that is my advice.

 

[Dash man]

I invested mostly in individual stocks, but don’t believe in speculative investing. Take your profits and buy something on sale. I’m buying some Cencora (COR) this month to add to our holdings.

 

[audreyh1]

You can always sell part of it and let more run.

 

[GrayHare]

Consider a stop loss order at a profit price. If the stock price keeps rising, you can raise your stop loss setting. If the price declines, automation will sell near the stop value and lock in a gain for you.

 

[DrRoy]

Stick to your plan, or at least sell half.

 

[Aerides]

If you don't fully understand the market and what led to its 50% increase, sell at least half. If you have a good understanding and have researched this stock a lot, ride it, but be prepared for it to reverse.

 

[dunkelblau]

Most of my share trading the past few decades involved small speculative tech stocks, and in my experience your question is the most difficult to answer. FWIW I regard the window between a 50% loss and a 100% gain as roughly break-even, so I almost never sell inside this window, nor would I double down. I think my 1099s will show most of my sells in this range were involuntary cash mergers (i.e. bought too soon and broke even on the buyout). So for me WWYD == hold.

I have a couple of recent bad experiences in sell timing.

I bought on the ground floor so to speak of HOLO on Feb 6 at $1.50 which was its low this past year after several weeks of a gradual descent. The very next day I was watching the market in the morning and saw its share price jump higher. Normally I wait the year to get long-term capital gains, but this was running hot, so I dumped it at $8.25 mid-morning. Well after a brief pause it kept rising and closed that day in the high teens. Then after-hours it peaked at $45. The next few days were volatile as it topped out in the mid 90s before hitting a fairly smooth descent back to below $5 as of yesterday's close.

Fifteen years ago I got a great price when I bought shares of Nautilus (NLS) at $0.75. I had two golden opportunities to exit in the mid 20s, once in 2015-16 and again during Covid in 2020-21. But this company looked solid to me at those times, so it never made the cut for trimming. Last week they filed Ch 11 bankruptcy, and I still hold my shares.

Pick your poison, sometimes winners hurt more than losers.

 

[target2019]

We have held shares in a small speculative tech stock for 2 years and are now seeing it increase in value by 50%.
Trying to decide when to sell.
We set our objective at 50% increase but now tempted to see if we can squeeze more profit.
Anyone want to share good and bad experiences ?
(We only have a $4000 in it so its not going to break the bank if we lose)

If I had your thoughts then it is time to sell at least 50%.

 

[thefist]

Why stop at 50%? Is there a reason for it, or was that just made up? Do the long term prospects of the company indicate it can continue growth?

 

[MarieIG]

You can always sell part of it and let more run.

I'm in this camp. Can you get back what you invested and "play with the house's money?"

 

[pb4uski]

We have held shares in a small speculative tech stock for 2 years and are now seeing it increase in value by 50%.
Trying to decide when to sell.
We set our objective at 50% increase but now tempted to see if we can squeeze more profit.
Anyone want to share good and bad experiences ?
(We only have a $4000 in it so its not going to break the bank if we lose)

Put in a stop loss order for 90% of current value and ratchet it up if the stock continues to climb?

 

[EvrClrx311]

Options could help you remove your profits (as well as some gains) and still maintain opportunities for growth if it continues to rise. You mentioned having $4,000 in stock in this company, and I assume over $1,250 of that is profit. You could sell all but $300 of it, and use that $300 to take a long term leverage on the company with options to continue to profit if it keeps going up, but without risking your money in the stock if it suddenly drops. Example: (remove $3,700 and put it somewhere safe... leverage a play to the upward with $300 on the stock 2 years out... and if it continues to climb... you'll profit even more, while protecting the $3,700 you took out in case it goes the other way)

 

[Dtail]

Stick with your plan.

+1
Locking in gains on small amounts feels good psychologically.

 

[Montecfo]

Would depend on how small and how speculative. And how much invested. I would reevaluate the investnent. If the orginal these remains intact I would keep all or some.

If not I would sell all.

 

[jollystomper]

We have held shares in a small speculative tech stock for 2 years and are now seeing it increase in value by 50%.
Trying to decide when to sell.
We set our objective at 50% increase but now tempted to see if we can squeeze more profit.
Anyone want to share good and bad experiences ?
(We only have a $4000 in it so its not going to break the bank if we lose)

I read this as you invested $4K and it is now up 50% to $6K.

If 50% gain was your objective, stick with at take profits.

If, based on the company's current situation, you think it has more room to grow, consider selling at lest $4K to recoup your original investment. Then you are just playing with house money.

The few stocks I own I looked at more in terms of years and less based on gain (in both cases the company's direction is factored in). There are two I sold on gain that I would have done much better had I held onto them. But no use crying over spilled milk.

 

[Octogirl]

Thank you all for your comments and advice.
We will sell enough to pay for our original investment and let the rest grow (or lose)
I appreciate the wisdom of this group.