Monday, March 23, 2026
The primary goal of investing is to avoid catastrophic losses. And yet, markets attract the most participants at the peak of a bull run.
Obviously, no trading strategy calls the exact top of a bull market. Peaks will pass and only hindsight will make them clear.
See, speculative bull runs are fleeting. The big gains are rarely captured by many. And if you’re not careful, the market will take back what it gave.
Rather than focusing on maximizing gains, try avoiding losing those gains. Limiting risk and avoiding losses is the key. It’s not so much knowing how to win, but knowing how not to lose.
The fear of missing out on gains – often called FOMO (fear of missing out) – reigns in a bull market. Greedy folks and FOMO often line up as small losses turn into catastrophic ones.
But it can be different. Fear of losing wealth combined with a good trading plan helps capture meaningful gains and avoid big losses.
In other words, it’s not really what you make, but what you keep. Thus, the moral of this story is there’s no wrong time to sell a big winner.
Taking profits is the point of investing. And there’s a lot of ways to do it. Bulls make money. Bears make money. But pigs get slaughtered.
If you stay in a trade too long, you may give back all your gains.
Daniel A. White is an investment advisory representative of and provides advisory services through CoreCap Advisors, LLC. Daniel A. White & Associates and CoreCap Advisors are separate and unaffiliated entities.