Investors decide to sell stocks to generate tax losses after looking at a complex set of conditions that include when they bought the stock, how steeply it has fallen recently and projections of how well it will perform going forward. And investors make these decisions not just with an eye on their own portfolio and tax returns, but with constant adjustments based on what everyone else seems to be doing. In a climbing market there's no way to put together a list of stocks that are guaranteed to climb, but we can and do isolate factors that have, historically, increased the probability that a stock will go up. Investors who want to limit their potential losses during this period should avoid stocks that closely fit this profile. Here's my profile of a stock that will face selling pressure from tax-conscious investors.
Institutional investors make up a majority of owners .
If institutions don't own it, they can't sell it. Big-company stocks generally have majority institutional ownership. But even in this group the range can be extreme. By and large, the range spreads out as market capitalization decreases. Can't sell it to generate a loss if the stock hasn't tanked.