Selling stock is the process of closing a long stock position. An investor might sell a stock position to secure profit, limit losses, or raise cash to fund another purchase.

To sell a stock position, an investor would select an order type to liquidate the position. Market orders, limit orders, stop-loss orders, or trailing stop-loss orders may be used to execute the trade.

Limit orders are often used to exit a position at profit targets while stop-loss or trailing stop-loss orders are frequently used to exit a position that has declined in value to some predetermined level.

Market orders sell the stock immediately at the current bid price in the open market. During periods of high volatility, selling stock with market orders may result in lower-than-expected price execution.

When should you sell a stock?

Selling stock is the process of closing a long stock position. An investor might sell a stock position to secure profit, limit losses, or raise cash to fund another purchase. If an investor believes that the current stock price is higher than where it will be in the future, they may sell the stock in anticipation of the price going down. Sometimes investors are forced to sell positions to liquidate capital because of a margin call or because they feel the capital could be better allocated to a different position.

Who buys my stocks when I sell them?

Every transaction in the market has two sides: a buyer and a seller. In order for someone to purchase a stock, there must be a seller in the market. Brokers and exchanges automatically pair together buyers and sellers based on the time of their order entry on a first-in, first-out basis.