What strategy/method do you use to determine when to exit a stock?

What about for downside.

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Do you have an exit target before you buy?

I feel my biggest weakness as a trader is holding on to stocks too long.

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I'm with you. For the most part, I've had terrible timing on sells. Part of the reason might be is I don't have a set strategy. I go on gut feeling along with the want/need to put the money in a different stock.

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rule #1 of trading: Don't make a trade an investment. Its hard but that's reality.

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+1

The hardest thing for many/most people to do (even professional traders/investors, e.g., Josh Brown and Twitter or Bill Ackman and Valeant) is admit when they're wrong. When you see people talk about a trade, and then once it goes south, they start saying things like "dollar cost average", "double down", "gotta get even again", that dog has turned into an investment. And it very seldom ends well.

I've done it myself. And so I try to use trailing stops as it moves up (or down on shorts) to protect profits, or enter (in my mind or in reality) a stop loss of X%, depending on the historical volatility of the instrument.