Take the money
Marjorie

Take your profits and start to construct the next winning portfolio.

got some good answers below. human emotions are funny things, this is certainly
evident in the markets more than most places. your biggest problem is that you
have to ask this question.

id rather fire back with; what do you have to do to learn how to answer your own
question? THAT will be more profitable in the long term.

options, scott is right, theyre pretty complex, especially when buying them.
gonna sound like a broke record but if you have to ask this question, options
aint for you.

lets say you had 120 shares of XYZ, maybe you sell 20 tomorrow, then instead of
these percentage trailing stops, id suggest channels. if you have two stocks,
one is volatile and the other isnt, the volatile one might get stopped out with
a 5% trail because of its nature, not because its going lower. by using channels
you use something that is much more unique to what youre trading. here is an
example of BP, the channel that has held the rally thus far.

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=BP&p=D&b=5&g=0&id=p88883946271

wont be a perfect system, not by a long shot (none are) but itll let you know
when its acting differently than it has throughout this rally.

Great Post Pete.

Sometimes a qoute is all you need to change the way you invest.

the retail investor/trader typically sells their winners too early, and holds
their losers too long. The suggestion to use a trailing stop is a good one.

use a trailing stop put it at 5% or so

Options are much more complex than most people think. That being said, If you
want to protect with options then use puts. However, you will have to pay a
premium to do so. On the other hand you can create a hedge to protect your
positions by selling called calls. Many people use this to create income while
still holding their positions. At the end of the day, it is not how much you
made but what your price target is for those stocks. If you have a higher price
target then sell out of the money calls. If your have met your price target then
selling the stock might be the optimal strategy.

I go by first looking at the market direction, then the industries you own, and
then the stocks.

You have no reason to sell until this broad based rally shows signs of topping.
The industries you own are well diversified. Now look at the stocks. If you
think the economy is going to get worse over the summer as the result of
unemployment from the auto sector, then I would sell Industeials and DE,MMM, and
oil should correct if economic weakness starts to price into the market. At that
point you can sell BP.

Wait for the market to lead though, I would hold all these positions for now.