📖Carl Icahn
Sell Discipline Rules
Follow pre-defined sell criteria without emotion.
Have clear, pre-defined sell criteria. Sell when: your thesis is broken, valuation is fully realized, or a significantly better opportunity appears.
🏠 Everyday Analogy
📖 Core Interpretation
Carl Icahn advocates a repeatable process: define criteria, execute consistently, and review decisions against evidence. Process quality drives outcome consistency.
💎 Key Insight：Disciplined selling prevents emotional decision-making.
AI Deep Analysis
Get personalized insights and practical guidance through AI conversation
❓ Why It Matters
Without process, there is no reliable feedback loop. Structured execution and review improve decision quality over time.
🎯 How to Practice
Run a decision loop of research, thesis, execution, and post-mortem; document assumptions and update playbooks with evidence, not hindsight bias.
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
Having opinions without execution criteria
Reviewing outcomes but not decisions
Abandoning rules during volatility spikes
📚 Case Studies
1
Apple Shareholder Activism (2013)
Icahn disclosed a large Apple stake and pushed for a significantly larger share repurchase program to deploy excess cash and boost shareholder value.
✨ Outcome：Apple expanded its buyback authorization, increasing capital returned to shareholders and supporting a substantial rise in market capitalization.
2
eBay–PayPal Spin-Off Campaign (2014)
Icahn took a stake in eBay and urged the company to separate PayPal and improve capital allocation, including more efficient returns of cash to shareholders.
✨ Outcome：eBay agreed to spin off PayPal, unlocking value; combined with buybacks, this enhanced shareholder returns over time.
See how masters handle real scenarios?
30 real investment dilemmas answered by legendary investors
Explore Scenarios →