Again, wrong! You make the assumption because you are driven to only want to sell because a stock has reached what you think is it's apex, that's everyone else's goal. If I bought, say, a railroad stock 40 years ago for 50 cents, and in my retirement sell it for $200 to buy a retirement property somewhere nice, but the stock continues to rise, by your metric, I've lost. That stock is going to continue to rise 50 years after I'm dead. Holding forever is pointless, and thinking the only way you win is to sell at the peak of a securities lifecycle, is frankly absurd. Successful trading is planning a trade with a target exit point, and achieving that exit point and closing the trade...regardless what the stock does after I exit. I have a "toybox" account...it's for funding my toys...atv's, boats, fun cars, whatever. It exists for me to cash out profits and buy toys. By your metric, I've lost, because I didn't hold forever, and bought a motorcycle instead. Ridiculous.