How much you paid for the stock should not affect your decision and short term fluctuations should be ignored.
Whether to sell depends on your goals and the fundamentals of the company.
If you need the money now for an important purpose then sell only as much as you need.
Normally, you should hold your stocks for as long as the fundamentals are good.
Company "fundamentals" are things like steady earnings each year instead of losses and very little long term debt so they won't get into financial trouble.
If the fundamentals go bad, sell and then buy good stocks.
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If you buy stock hoping that you can sell it for a quick profit because of the daily or monthly swings in price, then you are not investing. You are trying to guess better than the public (including the professionals) how the price will change. That is gambling.
When you buy and hold quality stocks over a period of time, the prices will go up for a real reason; the companies are earning money every year and becoming more valuable. This is investing.
?For when to hold:
Hold on to your stocks in good companies to allow them time to earn money for you. Except for your special goals, you don't ever want to sell.
If you save a portion of your income each payday and as it accumulates invest in sturdy stocks, then over the course of several years you can grow very wealthy indeed. It is like hiring someone to get a job and earn money for you, and then using that money to hire more workers. Your money grows exponentially .
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There are two answers to this Question:
a - Sell Everything and run.... the market is crashing
b - ride it out - don't look at the day to day losses - and come back when the market recovers to find your portfolio is recovering too.
All depends on how much risk and ups and downs you can handle.
I'm 18 and made my first two trades, both of which are making a decent profit. One was making +$900, now it's down to +$500, the other is +$160...which leads me in to my question.
When should you leave the market? I was investing more for the long term to get dividends and was going to set up a DRIP, but I'm realizing now that exposes you to more volatility and "risk" of losing a profitable trade (I was making +$900, now it's down to +$500 roughly)...seeing as I only have been in the market for a month now (before the ex-dividend, so I got a dividend as well), should I just take the profits now, or should I hold on to the stocks for a few years to accumulate dividends and ride the ups and downs out (which was my first intention)...what would be most recommended?
