article in the bull, page-15

In my humble view, I find buying a share the easy bit. Selling at the right time is harder to pull off. While I will be hanging on to my holding for the foreseeable future, I can fully appreciate the desire to bail out with a healthy profit.

I think we all realise the recent increases are probably a result of some articles that have appeared on different sites attracting new investors. If I was looking to sell, I think I would try to time it so that my sell order coincided a few days after the release of the half yearly profits. While FSA has already flagged an increase in first half profits of between 30 and 38%, when the actual announcement is made, it’s likely to generate some media and broker activity in the coming days that is likely to drive the share price to new highs. It’s amazing how old news gets recycled in the market.

I also believe that FSA will use the half yearly release to provide an update on the yearly profit forecast which is currently between 10 and 18%. It will be two months since their last update. Being the optimist, I expect another upgrade, if last year’s pattern is followed.

To those contemplating selling, one bit of old advice; you will never go broke taking a profit. Good luck with your timing, you might need it.