Free checklist
The before-you-sell checklist
Most selling is done for the worst reason available: the price moved and it felt like something. These eight questions separate a reason from a feeling. A good sell survives all eight.
- 1
Has the reason you bought actually broken?
Dig out the note you wrote when you bought (you did write one). If the thesis is intact and only the price fell, you are about to sell a business you believe in, cheaper. That is backwards.
- 2
Would you buy it today at this price?
If yes, why are you selling? If the honest answer is no, that asymmetry is real information, and the position deserves shrinking at least.
- 3
Is the business worse, or just the mood?
Check the last results: revenue, margins, cash flow, debt. Businesses change slowly; moods change hourly. Sell deterioration, not weather.
- 4
Are you selling because it fell, or because it is finished?
Down 30% tells you nothing by itself; every great long-term holding has been down 30% at some point. What matters is whether the earnings power that made you buy is still there.
- 5
What is the tax cost, exactly?
Outside a wrapper, a sale can crystallise capital gains tax (annual exempt amount just £3,000 in 2026/27). Sometimes worth paying; never worth ignoring.
- 6
Where is the money going next?
Cash with no plan quietly becomes the worst investment you own. If you cannot name the better use, you have not finished the thought.
- 7
Is this actually a position-size problem?
If one winner has grown to dominate your portfolio, trimming to a sane weight is discipline, not betrayal. You can be right about a company and still own too much of it.
- 8
Have you slept on it once?
One night. No good sell ever went bad by waiting a day; plenty of panic sells did. If it still makes sense tomorrow, execute without regret.
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Educational information, not financial advice. Figures current as of July 2026 where dated; allowances and rates change, so check the source before acting.