what strategies do you guys use for taking a profit? i’ve started taking back my full investement when a stock 100%'s and leaving the remaining as “profit” to let it grow a bit more…
some of the more sideways stocks i tend to sell my posittions when i get a 10% margin… i’ve got such small amounts invested that i prefer chasing the big growth stocks, sometimes i catch them sometimes i’m a little late but as they grow i try and take some profit.
I try to avoid being too greedy. Taking small, frequent profits rather than risking too much suits me. If I think a stock is trending up after I bought it and it doesn’t seem to me to be a sensible long-term investment, I set a limit order based on a reasonable profit margin. That way, I can try to get rid of it before reality sets in about the company’s less than stellar fundamentals. If it executes and I make some money, the profit goes in to the next gamble. I’d rather think “I could have made X more” than risk losing what I have made.
More sensible/long-term investors don’t worry about short-term profit taking and I have some investments like those, too. Personally, though, I mostly treat “investing” like a casino. Rather than put £500 on black or red, I’ll wait for an interesting looking IPO and risk what I can 
afford to lose. If I do lose it all, so be it. My beer money reserves have grown substantially since I joined 
though and now I tend to put a few hundred on something that looks promising for a short to medium term bet. If I can make 10% or 20%, great. Occasionally, I’ll expect a 100% to 500%, but it depends on the stock.
For ETFs, I’m a long-term buy-and-hold investor. I have an asset allocation plan with targets by asset class, region of the world, and sector, and I rebalance when they get too far away from my targets. But that’s quite infrequent.
For the part of my portfolio that is in individual stocks, I am currently doing the same as you: if a stock doubles, I have a strict rule to sell half to take profits, and then I reassess whether I think it still has growth potential, and either let it continue or sell it all and invest in a new prospect. I’ve had two stocks do that in the past few months. If a stock falls in price by more than 20%, I will reassess it and sell if I think it no longer has the potential that I once thought it did.
But stocks doubling is a rare thing! You wouldn’t think so from reading news about meme stonks going to the moon, but those are very much the rock-star minority. In the past 12 months of stock market recovery from the depths of despair we were in a year ago, everything seems to have been growing at double- or triple-digit rates, but this is the exception rather than the rule; the long-term average is more in the neighbourhood of 6% to 10% per year.
Slow and steady wins (or at least, finishes) the race!
I buy and hold but I use a maximum allocation of 5% per stock, and that is only for what I consider safe stocks. I use 3% for medium risk and 1.5% for high-risk stocks. I have criteria for what makes a safe, medium, and high-risk investment depending on the balance sheet, value, USPs, and performance.
I rebalance once and year and take profit if it goes above the limit or the fundamentals change.
I’ll let you know when I make some, only been at this for 2 - 3 weeks and only have like £130 invested across 3 - 4 companies so even when any of them have been up it’s only been pennies and just not worth cashing out of.
End of this month I plan to transfer a couple hundred over, put half into an ETF to start a long term save and then maybe can use the other half to try and make a little something but I’m not in the same ball park as many on here who I’ve seen throwing a several of hundreds or even a couple k at a stock, at most I’m into an individual company for £30 which means it would need to sky rocket to see any real profit.
ETFs I’m leaving until I have a reason to want the money. Buy and forget pretty much
Stocks I have my aims… but the best laid plans of mice and men…
If I think it might fly up and potentially crash like many recent spacs and tech companies I roughly split into 5 and go 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% and leave the last bit in for the moon. Good for if you don’t check your stocks regularly.
Then I try to sit on my hands and avoid cancelling them. I’d consider doing more if FT let me do more than 2 limits and 2 triggers.
Long term buy and hold for a minimum of 3 years for stocks ( a few solid stocks I will keep for at least 5 years )and will hold my investment trusts and ETFs until retirement. I only started investing in April so I may change my strategy in the future.
I regularly top up my savings so I am not forced to sell stocks for emergencies
all good strategies guys! thank you. if i ever get to 5 figures i’ll defo be implementing some of the more long term ones!!