Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat: If you buy a risky stock and it goes up three or four hundred percent, do you sell half, or just the amount equaling the original investment? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Our “sell-half” rule says that if a stock you own has doubled, you should sell half so you get back your initial stake. Once you’ve recovered your initial investment, you’ll be able to think more clearly about the stock. However, the sell-half rule applies mainly to stocks we rate as Start-up or Speculative. Every case is different, but you should generally hold on to high-quality stocks, even if they have doubled in price. One exception would be if a conservative stock makes up too much of your portfolio after doubling — say, more than 8% to 10%. Then you should at least consider taking some profits. Sometimes well-established stocks rise so high that we advise selling simply because they have gone too high in relation to their prospects. But as a general rule, it pays to be slow to sell your conservative winners, and quick to sell at least part of your holdings of aggressive or speculative winners. To answer your…