When to Take Profits | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD (2024)

FAQs

When should you take profits in the stock market? ›

Here's a specific rule to help boost your prospects for long-term stock investing success: Once your stock has broken out, take most of your profits when they reach 20% to 25%. If market conditions are choppy and decent gains are hard to come by, then you could exit the entire position.

A risk management principle known as the “3-5-7” rule in trading advises diversifying one's financial holdings to reduce risk. The 3% rule states that you should never risk more than 3% of your whole trading capital on a single deal.

As IBD founder William J. O'Neil says, "The secret is to hop off the elevator on one of the floors on the way up and not ride it back down again." After a significant advance of 20% to 25% from a proper buy point, consider selling at least some shares into that strength.

This sort of five percent rule is a yardstick to help investors with diversification and risk management. Using this strategy, no more than 1/20th of an investor's portfolio would be tied to any single security. This protects against material losses should that single company perform poorly or become insolvent.

The 8-week hold rule, developed by Investor's Business Daily (IBD), states that if a stock gains upwards of 20% within 1-3 weeks of a proper breakout, it should be held for eight weeks, as such stocks often become the market's biggest winners.

The 90 rule in Forex is a commonly cited statistic that states that 90% of Forex traders lose 90% of their money in the first 90 days. This is a sobering statistic, but it is important to understand why it is true and how to avoid falling into the same trap.

The Rule. If, after trading outside the Value Area, we then trade back into the Value Area (VA) and the market closes inside the VA in one of the 30 minute brackets then there is an 80% chance that the market will trade back to the other side of the VA.

While stock market investors rely on several rules to formulate their investment strategies, the 80-20 rule remains the most famous. Before we proceed, if you're wondering, 'what is the 80-20 rule? ' - it simply means that 80% of your portfolio's gains come from 20% of your investments.

Traders that follow the 10 a.m. rule think a stock's price trajectory is relatively set for the day by the end of that half-hour. For example, if a stock closed at $40 the previous day, opened at $42 the next, and reached $43 by 10 a.m., this would indicate that the stock is likely to remain above $42 by market close.

What is the 3 day rule in stocks? ›

In short, the 3-day rule dictates that following a substantial drop in a stock's share price — typically high single digits or more in terms of percent change — investors should wait 3 days to buy.

If Monday may be the best day of the week to buy stocks, then Thursday or early Friday may be the best day to sell stock—before prices dip.

What Is a 70/30 Portfolio? A 70/30 portfolio is an investment portfolio where 70% of investment capital is allocated to stocks and 30% to fixed-income securities, primarily bonds.

Rule 1: Always Use a Trading Plan

You need a trading plan because it can assist you with making coherent trading decisions and define the boundaries of your optimal trade. A decent trading plan will assist you with avoiding making passionate decisions without giving it much thought.

In short, macroeconomics is arguably the most important determinant of equity returns. This fact leads to what I call the “Golden Rule for Stock Market Investing.” It simply says, “Stay bullish on stocks unless you have good reason to think that a recession is around the corner.” The evidence for this is strong.

Though there is no ideal time for holding stock, you should stay invested for at least 1-1.5 years. If you see the stock price of your share booming, you will have the question of how long do you have to hold stock? Remember, if it is zooming today, what will be its price after ten years?

The answer to that question depends on which part of your investment portfolio you're asking about. For the portion of your portfolio that you tap into to pay current and near-term expenses—such as your son or daughter's upcoming tuition bill—going to cash can make sense.

An investor may also continue to hold if the stock pays a healthy dividend. Generally, though, if the stock breaks a technical marker or the company is not performing well, it is better to sell at a small loss than to let the position tie up your money and potentially fall even further.

Investors have the opportunity to ride out some of these highs and lows over a period of many years or even decades to generate a better long-term return. Looking back at stock market returns since the 1920s, individuals have rarely lost money investing in the S&P 500 for a 20-year time period.