shares, time to sell ???

bebop

I have shares in Royal Dutch Shell, Santander, National Grid, Centrica, would anyone advise it time to sell?? Not in need for the cash immediately but perhaps within the next 12/18 months ? Any thoughts anyone? or which ones to go first? Then cheapest way please? cheers.

AnotherJoe

If you need the cash within the next 18 months then I'd sell now.
How do you hold these shares? Paper certificates ? (otherwise why ask cheapest way to sell, use you current broker)

Alistair31

Given you’re relatively quick need for the cash then now would be a sensible time to sell.

EdGasketTheSecond

CNA are at a 10 year+ low; not a great time to sell unless you think they are doomed. Similar with BNC.


I might sell RDSB and NG. now and hold the other two for better times.

bostonerimus

To be frank if you own individual shares and have to ask this question you should never have bought them in the first place. If you need cash within 18 months then a basic rule is to have the cash in hand or at least in an easy access saving account...so I would sell now.

Aretnap

bostonerimus wrote: »

To be frank if you own individual shares and have to ask this question you should never have bought then in the first place.

Was going to say much the same thing. If these are the only 4 shares you own, presumably you bought them after careful research and consideration, and have a good reason for owning them rather than the thousands of other shares you could own? So do they continue to fit with your own investment goals and view of the market? If you need to ask random strangers on the internet for their opinions before answering that question, you would probably be better off owning broadly based investment funds rather than individual shares.

LobsterMemory

I see that the OP asked a similar question on here about Northern Rock shares in 2006 and was advised to hold on

Asking the same bunch of people is a clear triumph of hope over experience...

bowlhead99

LobsterMemory wrote: »

I see that the OP asked a similar question on here about Northern Rock shares in 2006 and was advised to hold on

Asking the same bunch of people is a clear triumph of hope over experience...

Ah, the wisdom of the crowd

Asking other people whether to sell Shell first or Centrica first is like saying shall I go on holiday to destination A or B first. You will get a range of opinions from people who have their own thoughts and preferences and even if there is a consensus it may not be right for you. And in reaching the consensus you will will get people who do not answer what you are asking (give an opinion on which place is best to go first), instead preferring to moan that you shouldn't be going on holiday at all or that based on some rule they have for themselves, you should have already been to these places already.

Personally, I don't know which of these shares will go up more or fall less between now and 12-18 months away. If you sell just one or two and keep the other, you are putting your eggs in one basket, which doesn't seem particularly smart, as concentrating your investments in one or two stocks is a high risk way to stay invested. Just like concentrating your invested money in these three stocks is a high risk way to stay invested, but even more so.

Recognising that if you need cash in 12-18 months you should probably not stay invested in these three stocks up until the day you need the cash, because you could lose a large percentage of its value while waiting, it would make sense to just get rid of them this week. However, if you are a gambler and would like to keep some market exposure right up to the day before you are going to spend the money, you could consider re-investing a portion of the proceeds of sale into a more diversified holding, such as an investment trust or ETF, and sell it nearer the time.

As a practical point, the 'cheapest way' to sell the shares if they are held as paper certificates is perhaps to open an account with a cheap execution-only broker such as https://x-o.co.uk/ , mail them the certificates, and sell them with an online sell order transaction.

If you already hold them electronically with a broker rather than on paper, you would also have the option of transferring them to x-o or anybody else for that matter, although some brokers will have a cost to transfer shares out; it might cost more to transfer than simply sell them by clicking a button with your existing broker. If you have them electronically with a broker already and are thinking of shopping around to find the broker with the lowest fees, bear in mind that moving them to a different broker will take time, and the share prices move on a daily basis, so it's quite possible that you would receive less money by taking a couple of weeks transferring them to a broker who had a cheaper headline fee than your current one.

Bravepants

I would sell the shares since you will need the cash soon. Once you have used the cash I would NEVER buy individual shares again. Much better to have a single multi-asset index fund made up of thousands of shares spread across sectors and nations!



Then you won't have to have the stress or worry about what shares to sell when...the computers running the fund would do that for you!

DrSyn

No one can see into the future. So no one knows what the share prices will be in 12/18 months.

If you sell now you at least will know how much you will get for these shares.

If they are causing you to worry or have sleepless nights, that is definitely a sign you should sell them.

A_T

If you held the equivalent in cash would you buy those shares tomorrow? Essentially that's the decision you have.