When to sell shares?

One of the trickiest questions repeatedly faced by investors – old and new alike – is when to sell shares.

Experienced investors will tell you a common mistake of new investors is looking to sell well performing shares in order to obtain a short-term cash boost.

Instead, they say, it is a far better strategy to hold on to shares that perform well and pay dividends. If you are in need of a cash injection, look to sell your worst performing shares.But judging which stocks are performing the worst (and which are the best to sell) is not as simple as glancing at the share price and offloading those on a downward trend.

Rather, the best approach is to look at the overall health of the company. Ask yourself why you invested in that company in the first place, and what has changed to make you lose faith in it.

If the company has fundamentally changed, it may be a good option to sell.

A good indicator when you are weighing up whether to sell a stock is to ask yourself the following question: would you buy the stock at its current price?

If the answer is no, then you should almost certainly sell.Remember that you can always buy back into a stock, possibly at a lower price. So try not to beat yourself up over a loss!