I really enjoy this thread and have learned a lot. I dabble in stocks but not nearly at the level of most of the regular posters on this thread. But I am curious. On average, when do folks sort of gauge their investments (winnings) and get out of a stock?
Are profits poured back into new investments or are they invested in some combination of safer vehicles or some combination? I realize that answers will differ widely but just trying to get a sense of what the average poster's approach is on this thread.
Anyway it is nice to see so many of my fellow RU grads do well.
Everything in this thread should be qualified a bit (like RUAldo mentioned). My trading/personal account only represents a small amount of our overall investment assets (which most are in traditional index/passive etfs or funds). But this is the fun stuff and what we focus on.
For my trading account, it has evolved quite a bit over the years. I focus much more on technical analysis that I did in the past. This means I use stop loss/levels that signal when I should sell a stock if things go south (normally very tight.....so dump a stock if it drops 10-20%). Otherwise, let the trend ride and until it changes! For example, I bought MSFT last month around $400 with a strong level of support at $383. It dropped below that so I had to get out. Sure, I own a ton of MSFT in our other accounts, but trading is different.
Profit remains in my trading account so it grows over time (hopefully!).