How Long Should you Hold a Stock - When to Sell a Stock (2024)

08 March 2024

4 min read

How Long Should you Hold a Stock - When to Sell a Stock (1)

It is no secret that timing the market for higher returns is next to impossible. The volatile and unpredictable nature of the market makes knowing the minimum time to hold stocks even more complicated.

Your selected stock might shoot up the day you buy it, or it might turn out to be a loss-making investment. And that’s why you, as an investor, need to plan the holding period while buying the stocks.

The investment horizon will depend on your investment strategy and approach and also the market conditions. It ultimately comes down to your perception of the market. If you think you can tackle the short-term fluctuations in the market, you are good to invest.

Generally, stock markets tend to trend upward in the long term. Therefore it makes sense to invest for the long term if your goal is wealth appreciation. Buying and selling stocks for short-term profits is more speculation than investing.

Warren Buffet once said: “If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”

When to Sell a Stock

When to buy and sell stocks is a common query faced by stock market trader.

In normal market conditions, booking profits when unrealized gains are more than 20-25% is considered a winning bet. However, you may consider exiting your open position if you think the stock has reached its uptrend potential. This can be analysed either via fundamental analysis or through technical indicators. Alternatively, if your opinion about the stock has changed over time, and you no more think of the stock as a winning bet.

It is also worth noting that stock prices might fluctuate in the short run; but in the long run, the market has given good returns.

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Why Long Term Investments Are Good

Compounding does all the trick here!

Staying put after investing in quality stocks will allow compounding to unleash its goodness. If you are invested in stock from lower levels and still find the risk-reward ratios favourable, adding more quantities on dips and averaging out your investments may be considered to reap better returns in the future.

That said, selling stocks fearing loss or sudden price falls tends to hurt the portfolio. You might save some money in the short run, but you could be giving up on possible multi-bagger returns. This can be reaped by holding shares for a long period.

Let’s bring in some facts!

Examples

Let’s talk about Nifty. Not long back, only a year and a half ago, during the early days of COVID-19, Nifty levels were dwindling and were a point of concern. In March 2020, the market hit circuit levels, and the Nifty tumbled to fresh lows of 7500 points. However, that was a turning point.

Of course, a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic struck us and changed some things forever, but the course of the market has been unstoppable and resilient, to say the least. The Nifty recently breached the 18,000 mark- that is almost a whopping 250% return in 1.5 years!

Those who held tight to Nifty even in its days of struggle in 2020 and those who showed patience and bought the dips made enormous profits.

Should We Hold a Loss-making Stock?

Ideally, one should cut loss-making stocks and rebalance a portfolio once in a while, but that doesn’t translate into selling wildly and panicking from small corrections. The market has responded to staggering highs with small corrections several times.

When dealing with loss-making stocks, follow the following three rules to find out when to sell stocks yielding negative returns-

  1. Sell the stock if the losses are beyond the risk-to-reward ratio you planned for that particular stock.
  2. Sell the stock if it falls below your stop loss or strong support zones.
  3. Don’t hold a stock for tax-loss harvesting because, in the quest of saving a few bucks in taxes, you’ll end up losing too much on the stock.

What is the Ideal Holding Period?

If you are not running short on funds, staying invested until your goals are realized may be the best way forward. Some investors advocate staying invested for years.

Thus investing strategies vary for each individual and depend on their risk appetite. It should be aligned with investment goals rather than what others are saying.

You may also want to know

1.

How Much Money Can You Make in Trading Stocks

2.

How to do Valuation Analysis of a Company

3.

How to Read Stock Charts

4.

How to Read Candlestick Charts for Intraday Trading

5.

How to Make Money in Stock Market

Disclaimer: This blog is solely for educational purposes. The securities/investments quoted here are not recommendatory.

To read the RA disclaimer, please clickhere
Research Analyst - Aakash Baid

Disclaimer

The stocks mentioned in this article are not recommendations. Please conduct your own research and due diligence before investing.Investment in securities market are subject to market risks, read all the related documents carefully before investing.Please read the Risk Disclosure documents carefully before investing in Equity Shares, Derivatives, Mutual fund, and/or otherinstruments traded on the Stock Exchanges. As investments are subject to market risks and price fluctuation risk, there is noassurance or guarantee that the investment objectives shall be achieved. Groww Invest Tech Pvt. Ltd. (Formerly known as Nextbillion Technology Pvt. Ltd)Ltd. do not guarantee any assured returns on any investments. Past performance of securities/instruments isnot indicative of their future performance.

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How Long Should you Hold a Stock - When to Sell a Stock (2024)

FAQs

How Long Should you Hold a Stock - When to Sell a Stock? ›

So understand that stocks that trigger the 8-week hold rule often sell off fairly hard during the holding period. This rule helps you sit through that and avoid selling too soon. Once the eight weeks from the original buy point have passed, you can sell to lock in your gains or continue to hold.

How long should I hold a stock before selling? ›

There's no minimum amount of time when an investor needs to hold on to stock. But, investments that are sold at a gain are taxed at a capital gains tax rate. This rate changes, depending on whether the investor held onto the stock for more or less than one year.

At what point should you sell a stock? ›

According to IBD founder William O'Neil's rule in "How to Make Money in Stocks," you should sell a stock when you are down 7% or 8% from your purchase price, no exceptions.

How long do I have to wait to sell a stock after buying it? ›

How Long Do You Have to Wait to Sell a Stock After Buying it? Technically, there is no waiting period. You can sell a stock seconds after buying it. However, frequent day trading might classify you as a 'Pattern Day Trader' by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which carries certain requirements.

What is the 3 5 7 rule in trading? ›

What is the 3 5 7 rule in trading? 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.

What is the 30 day rule for selling stocks? ›

Q: How does the wash sale rule work? If you sell a security at a loss and buy the same or a substantially identical security within 30 calendar days before or after the sale, you won't be able to take a loss for that security on your current-year tax return.

What is the 3 day rule in stocks? ›

The 3-Day Rule in stock trading refers to the settlement rule that requires the finalization of a transaction within three business days after the trade date. This rule impacts how payments and orders are processed, requiring traders to have funds or credit in their accounts to cover purchases by the settlement date.

How long to hold stock to avoid tax? ›

If you hold a stock for one year or longer, your gain will be taxed at the long-term capital gains tax rate. But if you hold a stock for less than one year before selling it, your gain will typically be taxed at your ordinary income tax rate.

What is the 10 am rule in stock trading? ›

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.

Why are the rich selling their stocks? ›

In mid-2023, news began to spread about the world's super-rich reducing their ownership of shares in public companies. The reason behind this move is to secure their wealth amidst rising interest rates and economic uncertainty. Similar issues are still ongoing to this day.

How much money do day traders with $10,000 accounts make per day on average? ›

With a $10,000 account, a good day might bring in a five percent gain, which is $500. However, day traders also need to consider fixed costs such as commissions charged by brokers. These commissions can eat into profits, and day traders need to earn enough to overcome these fees [2].

Is it legal to buy and sell the same stock repeatedly? ›

As a retail investor, you can't buy and sell the same stock more than four times within a five-business-day period. Anyone who exceeds this violates the pattern day trader rule, which is reserved for individuals who are classified by their brokers are day traders and can be restricted from conducting any trades.

Who pays you when you sell a stock? ›

Investors can, should they choose to do so, buy these shares, and then they can sell them on to other investors, if someone is willing to buy. When you sell your stocks the buyer pays the money; when you buy the stocks the money you paid goes to the seller. The transactions are handled by stock brokers.

What is the 80% rule in trading? ›

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.

What is the 90 90 90 rule traders? ›

There's a saying in the industry that's fairly common, the '90-90-90 rule'. It goes along the lines, 90% of traders lose 90% of their money in the first 90 days. If you're reading this then you're probably in one of those 90's... Make no mistake, the entire industry is set up that way to achieve exactly that, 90-90-90.

What is 90% rule in trading? ›

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.

How long should you hold a stock position? ›

If you are not running short on funds, staying invested until your goals are realized may be the best way forward. Some investors advocate staying invested for years. Thus investing strategies vary for each individual and depend on their risk appetite.

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