How to preserve the stock market gains

[Akki_best]

Hello experts, new to this forum but I have been following many threads and truly humbled with the amount of knowledge being shared here. Thank you!
I would like to understand and get opinion on different strategies people are thinking to preserve their gains as we are entering into 2021 and with all the external events that might affect stock market.
Question is really two folds:
1) Long Call Options : Besides affected by time decay - does it make sense to keep trimming as we enter into volatile market?
2) Long terms HOLD: For any shares which are meant for long term hold, do you trim them a little and wait for an opportunity to add it back to really get the maximum out of it? I understand this means timing the market but wanted to get an opinion on this.

Thanks

 

[adiggs]

Context also matters, but I'll assume you're in growth mode (whether it's leveraged growth or not).

For #2 - my advice is simple. Buy the shares you want (or can afford), and ignore them as long as your investment thesis remains intact. Forget about them for months, quarters, or even years at a time. All you're monitoring is the company results in terms of your thesis - when the company shows signs of violating your investment thesis, then you're out. Definitely no timing.

In the 8 years I've been here and owning TSLA, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people sell at what they think is a local peak, planning to buy back later, and either buying back at a higher price or just disappearing / not getting back in. In and out works for some, but if it will work for you, then you have a lot more knowledge, study, and experience with the market to risk it (and possibly still fall behind simple buy and hold).


No help from me on call options. I've got original shares ($27 each, now $5.47 post split) I've held for 8 years without touching / thinking about them. They're ahead something like 113x now, and my thesis includes 10x from here between now and 2030, so I'm continuing to hold (and ignore).

Nothing I say on call purchases of any duration can be trusted.

 

[Akki_best]

@adiggs : Thank you for your reply! Context was really generic where I have combination of #1 and #2 across multiple stocks including of course Tesla. I completely agree with your advise on #2. I don't think its worth to spend that much time and energy to time the market for maximum gain ( still with a possibility of falling behind). I would rather continue holding what I have ( as long as underlying thesis is intact) and focus on finding the new growth stocks. Thank you and much appreciated!

 

[dakh]

@adiggs : Thank you for your reply! Context was really generic where I have combination of #1 and #2 across multiple stocks including of course Tesla. I completely agree with your advise on #2. I don't think its worth to spend that much time and energy to time the market for maximum gain ( still with a possibility of falling behind). I would rather continue holding what I have ( as long as underlying thesis is intact) and focus on finding the new growth stocks. Thank you and much appreciated!

If you could time the market, you'd not be posting these questions in this forum, you'd be either timing the market or chilling on your private island or spacecraft Just get over the whole notion that somehow you can do it. I was thinking I'm gonna be so smart and time the next big TSLA move up. What ended up happening is I spent ungodly amounts of time in the span of 3-4 years just trying to not go completely broke juggling my LEAPS and in the end I maybe did just a bit better vs. if I simply kept buying stock instead of paying time value. And I got super lucky I didn't get completely wiped out, so the crazy risks I ended up taking would simply not exist in the buy and hold strategy. Even if you try to play these games and it works out, don't think you're a genius, you just got lucky. I know I did.