Greed can kill....I just keep remembering my father's wise words: "You can never go broke by taking profits". Too often someone will buy a stock at say $1....we'll say 10,000 shares to keep the math simple. It doubles to $2 and an initial $10,000 investment has turned into $20,000 on paper. The problem is, and I've been guilty of this....too many investors forget that $10,000 of that $20,000 is profit....they start to view the entire $20,000 as MINE!!! Later we'll say it goes to $5....that's $40,000 in profit on top of the $10,000 invested. But then the stock falls to $4, and instead of selling and celebrating a $30,000 capital gain people will bemoan the $10,000 they "lost" by not selling at $5.....and then at $3, they've still got a $20,000 profit but instead its viewed as a $20,000 loss.

I've made the mistake before, I won't again