Since the start of 2026, the markets have experienced multiple ups and downs. The CAC 40 fell back below 8,000 points, before returning to -2.6% since the start of the year. Over the same period, TotalEnergies gained more than 40%, then stabilizing around +38.5%; not to mention gold, which reached a record at $5,500 per ounce, before correcting by more than 10%… then rising again. For individual investors, this succession of ups and downs is confusing, even frightening.
It is important to clarify that we are talking here purely about stocks, and not about a long-term accumulation strategy or DCA on a large ETF like the MSCI World – in which diversification protects and where it is a question of continuing to accumulate, no matter what happens, until we have reached our horizon. On stocks, metals, even cryptocurrencies, there always comes a time when we ask ourselves: should you take your profits? When to cut your losses? In order to avoid the worst scenario: you made +80%, you did not sell, then the stock drops, down to -50%, -60% perhaps… Because, if we are told everywhere how to buy, we rarely talk about how to sell.
The key: think about the sale even before purchasing
Andrea Tueni, market expert at Saxo, is categorical: the difficulty in selling does not come from the market, but from our own lack of preparation. “The right time to sell is not a date on the calendar, it is a scenario that you have defined before you buy. In the stock market, stress comes mainly from what we didn’t plan. A clear plan reduces fear much more than a technical indicator. » To avoid panic the day your lines drop, or euphoria when they fly away, you need a strategy.
The basic rule, according to Andrea Tueni, is to define four parameters for each line at the time of purchase: the entry price, the profit sales objective (for example +15%), the loss cut-off threshold (for example -10%) and the envisaged holding horizon. “We control neither the market nor the calendar, but we always control our entry price, our exit price and our time horizon”summarizes the Saxo expert. This framework is a sort of safeguard against decisions taken on the spot. It is therefore necessary to put it in place before buying.
The idea is not to predict the market, but to know the answer in advance that you will give to his movements. Concretely, if you buy a stock for 100 euros with a profit target of +20% and a stop at -10%, you know in advance that you will sell at 120 euros or 90 euros, whatever happens next. This discipline avoids the classic scenario that threatens every investor: seeing a latent capital gain evaporate because we waited. “a little more”. On the most speculative assets, such as cryptos or small caps, this trap comes up even more often
Distrust of adages like “Sell in May”
Every beginning of May a well-known stock market adage comes up: you should sell your positions in May and return to the markets in the fall, the summer period being historically calmer. But the reality is more nuanced. Deutsche Bank analyzed the Stoxx Europe 600 index, and showed that the “Sell in May” strategy underperformed the buy-and-hold strategy in 25 out of 39 years tested. Only three catastrophic summers for the markets work in favor of Sell in May : 1998, 2001 and 2002. Without these three years, selling in May would have clearly been a loss in the long term.
It is therefore better not to play with fire, and to keep your own strategy in mind. And as Andrea Tueni reminds us: “The history of the markets shows one simple thing: missing a few rebound sessions after a correction is sacrifice a lot of performance of an entire cycle. »
