Absurd reasons investors don't sell concentrated positions: "I'm holding strong"

Mar 19, 2025

The Baird paper mentioned in the graphic above includes several reasons investors hold concentrated positions. But it missed a few good ones I’ve heard over the years.

So, I went to Reddit to fill in the gaps.

Why investors hold:

FOMO: Tres commas
Tax: Afraid to rip off the Band-Aid
Past stock success: Number go up
Overconfidence in predicting the future: “I got this”
Conviction in the company: “To the moon 🚀”
Belief employees have unfair insight: But not insider trading
Overconfidence in personal research: “The markets aren’t efficient”
Diversification reluctant: “Concentration is how people get wealthy”
Hoping a losing stock will rebound: “It’ll come back”
Unaware of risk: Out to lunch
Perceived company stability: Too big to fail
Actively ignoring risk: See no evil 🙈
Misunderstanding diversification: “I personally do only 6 companies now”
Procrastination: I’ll diversify next year
Lack of a plan: “The shares just kept vesting”
Fear of complex (or expensive) solutions: Trouble understanding ROI
Inheritance attachment: “Grandpa gave me those shares”
Personal attachment: “I’ve had those since I was a kid”
Supporting a cause: “I hardly even look at the stock anymore, yet I’m holding strong.”
Bragging rights: schizo posting

Join me and several others for a panel on managing concentrated stock wealth.