[theory6453]

I don't believe in targets where one sells a portion. If the stock demands selling at a certain point then it deserves to be gone totally. If you think that the stock will continue to rise then what's the point in getting out?

I go for the Simple Life Philosophy; get in and stay in until it's time to get out and then get right out.

Great question, Malaguti. I am of the same thinking as Malcolm on this. Why sell if you think it might still go up? I used to sell portions of my positions to take profits, thinking I would buy them back after they went lower, but it never worked exactly right and I missed a lot of good upwards moves.

I understand the thinking though... A 30% profit target is great... except when the stock moves 100% or 200% and then your 30% doesn't seem so hot. Sure, I didn't lose $$, but I definitely cut the legs out of good position and minimized my earnings potential.

Currently, I use Stan's method of placing my stop under the 30 wma of the most recent pullback and then moving the stop up until the whole position stops out. The one exception I do take into account is that if the stock is moving up very rapidly and there is an exceedingly large gap between the stock's price and the 30 wma, I will sometimes place my stop under the 10 wma of the last pullback instead and apply the same method of moving the stop up until it stops itself out. If there are no warning signs or no red flags though and everything looks to be behaving as expected, I follow the method and don't get out prematurely.

Just my $0.02. Hope that helps...