When to sell?

Monday, 11th October 2010 11:01 - by Boredmum

Lately, I have seen a lot of stocks around that seem to have really taken off in terms of share price. I have been amazed at reading on chat pages of people holding and, although in considerable profit, they haven’t sold any shares. For example, Gulf Keystone Petroleum (TIDM code: GKP). Many have held this share since around the 10-15p mark and still say on the chat boards they haven’t sold a single share - even though the current sp is close to 150p. Rockhopper (TIDM code: RKH) being another share in this bracket, lately rising from around 40p to 400p. Recently, there have been many of these shares ‘multi-bagging’ and people stating they are happy to continue to hold. I was on the Encore Oil (TIDM code: EO.) chat board a few days ago and someone stated how many shares they purchased 2 years ago and they were thinking of where they should set a Stop-Loss. Co-incidently, their purchase of £2,000 was now worth over £30,000! I was in Encore Oil way back at 15p, got bored and moved on. I was in GKP at around 17p and sold around 28p, thinking I had a nice profit. There are so many more examples like it. I have only been exercising patience with one share I hold, which is Churchill Mining (TIDM code: CHL), even though I have been patient I still worry I will sell out too quickly for a small profit. You see, however much I have learned from the markets, I just can’t seem to learn the art of patience. All I see is many lost opportunities because of it. It probably comes down to a fear of losing the small profit that I have. It seems to be an art that can’t be taught.