How to be better at selling stocks

There is plenty of advice around about buying stocks, but not so much about when you should sell. John Stepek explains the two key things to know about selling stocks.

NYSE stock traders
Knowing when to sell stocks is just as important as knowing when to buy them
(Image credit: © Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Markets are somewhat unsettled as we start 2022.

So what better time to turn to that question which has vexed investors through the ages: when should you sell a stock?

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.