Eventually, you'll have to decide when to sell a stock to cash in a profit. This is a decision that takes perhaps even more skill than buying a stock. After all, your profit depends on when you sell. You'll find these strategies helpful:

• You may want to consider selling a few of your stocks if they're up 20% or more, unless they make this move in less than four weeks. Such a sharp increase in a short period, provided the market is in a general uptrend, usually means a stock is strong and could be headed for greater gains.
   
• A stock reaches a "climax top." This is when the stock's price has moved up for many months, then suddenly surges, typically 25% to 50% or more, in one to three weeks.
   
• A stock's price-to-earnings ratio (stock price divided by annual earnings per share) rises at least 120% from the buy point off an earlier basing chart pattern. Historically, this is the point when some stocks exhaust their advances.

For more sell signals, read Lesson 2 of Lessons on Selling.

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