I'm asking for some guidance from the experts here on how to take profits. I've invested in some of the stocks that this board talks about and I am up significantly in some of them.

First. I am not a trader. This is also in an IRA outside of my company 401K and pension plan. I have always been buy and hold as Im not Educsted enough tech analysis. I look for good companies and invest.

My question is how do you take profits? Should I sell covered calls? Sell at a predetermined percentage? How much of a chunk of the stocks should I sell? Get back my original investment and let it ride?

Example:
I own 500 shares of NVidia at an avg cost of $115. ( bought before the 10:1 split). About $60K invested total. It is currently worth $73K. Up about $13K (about 22%).

I'm also up on PLTR 100 shares (up 19%), TESLA,(250 shares up 100-%) and 100 shares Amazon (up 105%)

I also own 600 shares of Targa. That pays $1/share dividend per quarter. My cost is about $6/share (held since Covid) and it is at $200/share currently.

I'm down on SMCI 360 shares (-65%)

How would you experts proceed?

Also an investor more than trader. If I'm in individual stocks, my strategy is to take profits at certain points and dump the earnings into mutual funds.

I sell half at 2x my cost basis to go net free.

If I get to 10x my original cost basis, sell half again.

Never had anything better than that. Haven't been doing this for too long though.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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valvemonkey91 said:

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I'm asking for some guidance from the experts here on how to take profits. I've invested in some of the stocks that this board talks about and I am up significantly in some of them.

First. I am not a trader. This is also in an IRA outside of my company 401K and pension plan. I have always been buy and hold as Im not Educsted enough tech analysis. I look for good companies and invest.

My question is how do you take profits? Should I sell covered calls? Sell at a predetermined percentage? How much of a chunk of the stocks should I sell? Get back my original investment and let it ride?

Example:
I own 500 shares of NVidia at an avg cost of $115. ( bought before the 10:1 split). About $60K invested total. It is currently worth $73K. Up about $13K (about 22%).

I'm also up on PLTR 100 shares (up 19%), TESLA,(250 shares up 100-%) and 100 shares Amazon (up 105%)

I also own 600 shares of Targa. That pays $1/share dividend per quarter. My cost is about $6/share (held since Covid) and it is at $200/share currently.

I'm down on SMCI 360 shares (-65%)

How would you experts proceed?

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If you're investing long term and think these companies will continue to do well, I would just leave it. Do you think these companies will be worth less in 15 years?

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I think they will all still be great companies in 15yrs. Especially the AI plays, but the market is the market. Do I skim some off top and wait for a correction to DCA down? Should I let it ride? What is consensus of some of the experienced guys here? I'm not saying I'm going to act on the advice, just wondering what others would do. My gut tells me to take some profits (maybe because Im following a a trading thread), but I've always bought and held.

My opinion... If you are going to own an individual stock you should have an idea of its value and when you would take profits and exit, you should also have a stop in place to limit your risk. Some stocks it makes sense to not take profits for decades. Other stocks things may change or it may become wayyy overvalued and you should take profits. It all depends on the individual stock.

For a long term investor like yourself ask yourself would you buy or sell this stock at its valuation.

On big winners I like to go net free if possible and just let it ride after that. However I have had some things grow so big that I was uncomfortable with how much of my portfolio was allocated to one stock. (I.e. NVDA).

Edited to add this all "fun" investing on top of fully funded retirement accounts that have consistent contributions and I do absolutely no "trading" in. I would prioritize having that in place first and keep it diversified and not try to time highs and lows.

When I feel comfortable holding a company, I hold on to the shares regardless of the price action and when the inevitable pull back occurs, I add more to dollar cost average down. Only companies/equities I feel comfortable doing that with are NVDA, MSFT, AMZN, APPL, MELI, FBTC, BRKB and at least for the time being, POWL.

I own several other companies that I think are good l-t holds, but I don't feel as comfortable with them so typically never add and will dump them after a significant gain. One I dumped not too long ago which I regret is Spotify. I dumped it after a double at $305 and today it sits at $470. Conversely, I also dumped SMCI at $838 (pre-split) so sometimes it works out.

I'm up 2000% on my Apple, 940% on Amazon, and 850% on Berkshire B. All in one of My IRA's, why would I sell? Been thru a few crashes too.

One theory is to put in a trailing 10% stop loss. Let the market decide when to sell. You cap your losses, but not your gains.

I am aware that many stocks have a "shake out" before they resume higher, and I am willing to live with that.

I don't have a stop loss set for my long term investing, like the VOO holdings. I just HODL.

OldArmyCT said:

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I'm up 2000% on my Apple, 940% on Amazon, and 850% on Berkshire B. All in one of My IRA's, why would I sell? Been thru a few crashes too.

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Disclaimer - You have had a lot of really good posts on this forum. This is not one of them.

For the record, I also hold those 3 positions in my IRA - As of today, AAPL is up 1462%, AMZN is up 1449%, and BRK.B is up 391% from my original purchase dates. Like you, I also do not plan to sell anytime soon.

There are several reasons the original poster would sell, notwithstanding what YOU or I choose to do in our portfolios. These might be:

- They want to de-risk if they're nearing retirement
- They no longer believe they would invest in these names today versus other alternatives for their investing dollar
- They are re-balancing to avoid over-concentration in these positions

That's just a starter list, and they may have their own reasons we are not privy to. I remind everyone - no one ever went broke by cashing in gains.

I am NOT advising the following course of action, but as for myself, when I have felt over-concentrated on AAPL and AMZN after a past furious run-up in value, I have either sold covered calls or bought protective puts to temporarily hedge that perceived risk. Not for everybody (and clearly not for the OP, as it doesn't sound like he has options trading experience), but it's my chosen method.

I have a set asset allocation and when my stock position gets larger than the allocation I rotate out of stocks into bonds/cash/CDs/t-bills to get the allocation I want back.

Conversely if the stock positions gets under my desired allocation I rotate from bonds/fixed income back into stock.

When it comes to individual stocks in the past I would set a percentage gain I am looking for and either sell at that point or sell my original position and let the gains run depending on what I felt about the company. I don't trade many individual stocks anymore but I always had a rule of no more than 10% of my portfolio in a single stock so I have sold some positions because of that as well.

Don't sell NVDA. In fact, buy more when you can. All imo.