Thank you all for responding to my query. Just to clarify, this wasn't a "troll thread", it was a genuine and sincere question to a problem I needed to deal with ASAP. I carefully considered everyone's responses and I've decided to hang on to the shares for now. Let me explain why: I've had one too many liquidation violations in the past couple months. E*Trade (my broker) has put my day trading account in review, so I cannot buy on margin for 90 days. I can only sell. So if I were to take this loss and sell these shares, I wouldn't be able to repurchase them on margin until sometime in early March. So basically I'm stuck with what I have. I cannot add any new positions even if I sell these shares (Twitter or any other). I can't wait until March to try and repurchase these shares because the price may have risen significantly by then. Twitter's next earnings are in mid/late Feb, and they may have some good news. I don't think this stock is a total dud. I'm not a huge fan of Twitter, but it's not some fly by night penny stock. I do believe it will eventually recover, or get acquired by Apple/Microsoft/Google if it goes low enough. This might take a few months. I might as well hold on to these losses even if it takes 6 months to recover. I might not get back my entire investment, but I'd rather lose $10-15k than $200k. I'll write back in a couple of months and let you guys know how the decision worked out. To answer one of the commenters, yes I am a "trader" in the eyes of the IRS. I trade daily and consistently with large sums. So I could offset the loss against next year's earnings if necessary. thanks again everyone, and wish you all a prosperous 2016!
What's a liquidation violation? If you are a trader in the eyes of the irs aren't you mark to market?
Twitter is in a down trend but as you say,it is ubiquitous and if it falls low enough it may well get bought.
IMO.... that's wrong way thinking.... that's how "losses" turn into catastrophic losses. The value of your account is what it is today, regardless of your tax situation. If you would buy that position today, then go ahead and hold with some reasonable stop. If you would not buy it today, you probably shouldn't hold it for the same reasons. I'm a chart trader... all decisions based upon charts. I just looked at TWTR and see playing a potential matched low @$21 or extending the bottoms line between $29.50 and $21 as a hold stop. If market doesn't hold either of those, things could get lots uglier fast. That said, buying (or holding) here would violate my principle of "not buying into a strong downtrend".