This is something that I have trouble with as a relative newb investor. When do you sell investments? I have some that are up 4-24% and climbing. Do I take some profit and reinvest it somewhere else or let it ride? These are long term investments so I dont need the money soon. But should I sell some so I have more cash to reinvest if the market corrects?

Also, how much do you lose on a stock before you decide to sell and cut your loses?

What do you guys do?

I dont plan to day trade but I do check quotes a few times a day.

You should buy or sell based on whether the stock is a good value or not.  How much you are up or down shouldn't come into the equation unless it has something to do with your tax strategy.

If you have stocks that are up 24% but continue to be fairly valued and the underlying company is in good shape and has good prospect then there is no reason to sell no matter how up you get.  There are plenty of stocks that would be up 5000% had you bought them 20 years ago that are still worth holding today because they still represent a good value.

Now if you have a high performer that is getting overvalued, as in trading at an uncomfortably high level of price to earnings, then it might be a good idea to sell and take your profit.  If a stock is overvalued, then by definition it's not a good value, and it's a waste of your money to keep it in that stock.

Same goes in the other direction.  Don't hang on to losers waiting for a spike to break even.  If the company is a dog then it's a waste of your time to wait out a rebound just to break even because that money could be doing better things for you elsewhere invested in a high quality company.

With that said, if you are picking good stocks to begin with, you shouldn't have to be jumping in and out of your positions to begin with except for when things get way out of whack like back in 2000 when certain Dow components were trading at 50 times earnings or 2009 when those same stocks were trading at 6 times earnings.  

while I agree with what was said above, you should also consider rebalancing your portfolio from time to time.

depenging on what you are invested in, take some of the higher riding stocks and sell some percentage of it, so that it still only takes up x percent of your portfolio rather than it being some larger percentage.

holding on to winners and losers too long becomes gambling if you are just basing it off of how much they are worth. people get caught up in the hold on to it because it might be worth more later rather than just looking at what it is worth then and if it might go up from then.

If you wouldn't buy it at that point on its own, then don't own it then on its own.

of course I am horrible at that if I have to be honest. But rebalancing helps negate the damage I do to myself when I don't listen.

oh and it helps if you stop watching that stock for a little bit so you don't beat yourself up later if you sold on the would have could have stuff.

Sometimes it's wise to pair up your losses with any gains, example:



You have to pay all your capital gains for the tax year you made them



You only get to write off $3000 or so in capital losses for the tax year you made them, then you have to carry over the balance



So if you have a $50,000 capital loss it'll take 17 years to write that sucker off



OTOH, if you have a $50,000 loss and a $50,000 gain in the same year, you add them up and essentially you have no capital gain taxes to pay or losses to deduct.

This. Every time you balance your portfolio, look at the stocks you own and think: "Would I buy that stock again today, at that price?" If the answer is no, then ask yourself, "why not?". There's a good chance that it's time to sell that stock. If you can look at a stock and say "I would buy that stock today, at the current price, even though it's up X% this year", then it's a good sign you should continue to hold. If the opportunity for growth is still there, then who cares what your past return is? You can't go back in time to correct mistakes or capitalize on good decisions. All you can do is try and evaluate what the future holds for each stock, and if it looks promising, don't sell.

Warren Buffet has always said that his preferred holding period for stocks is "forever" and I agree with that. As long as it's worth owning, hold it. You don't need an exit strategy until the stock is no longer a good value.