Keep a sell list

Keeping a sell list

I've mentioned in the past that if you're going to start investing then you'd better keep a sell list. A sell list is a listing of all the shares in your portfolio that you may have sold.

Practicalities of a sell list

The sell list is pretty simple. When you come to sell a share, write down the following details: the date that you sold the shares, the position (number of shares) that you sold, and a description as to why you sold those shares.

Why keep a sell list?

Investing in shares is a difficult process. It is a constant learning experience. Even once you've gotten rid of your shares it is important to note that you cannot be sure that the decision to sell was correct unless you know for certain that you made a better investment elsewhere with the cash acquired from the sale. 

Not only is keeping a sell list an effective way to keep a record of the stocks you used to sell, for posterity sake, but it is a good way to check whether you made mistakes in your investment decisions in the past. 

Every 6 months it is worth going back to your sell list to review the stocks that you sold. Did they do better than you expected? Why? Does that mean that your assessment of the shares at the time of selling was wrong? 

You might find that through this reassessment process that some of your sale decisions were not correct. This should help you to make better investment decisions in the future, helping you grow your wealth and get richer!


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