Let your profits run - help!

OK
I am happy with my method for entering trades and my money management. What I can't get my head around is where to get out. I see talk of fib lines, SR lines, round numbers and MAs. By the time these are all put on my chart my average move would be around 10 pips!!

I know this all comes down to how long you want to be in a trade for and it will be different for those working from 15 minute charts and for those working from 4 hourly or daily charts, but how do you decide whether to stay in for 50 pips, 500 pips or more?

Thanks all for your help yet again

Max

it depend on the trade and the instrument and the market but trailing is the best choice

for example
if it trending I will trail under the last two days
if it rang I try to exit at 1:1 or 1:0.7 at least
if it volatile I trail by fixed no of pips

also each setup has it's suitable target

Well, first the question becomes, "why do you have to let your profits run?". The first book i read on trading/investing was "Mad Money" by Jim Cramer. Sure, he's insane and of questionable investing skill, but he did drive home one point: Don't get greedy. Of course I don't remember the words, but he had a 2 line diddy ending with "pigs get slaughtered". Whether from Cramer or my finance background, i've always been mindful of risk. I've decided that 1 pip in the bank is better than 100 possible pips (just a saying folks). I would like to think that is a fairly common saying.

My default take profit is 100pips. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the trade and S&R. But every morning i'll wake up and check my trades and i usually net around 200. Honestly, some trades i'm lucky the TP hit, but that's what i get for using a default TP. But when i grab 100pips on a 200pip movement, i don't say, "darn, i missed another 100pips". I'm grateful for what i was given. Some trades i'll stop at 20pips because there will always be another trade.

With greed, you're sooner to lose 1mil than to make it.

My advice to you...besides the above...is to find SOMETHING, anything, that works for you. Tweak this, modify that until you're satisfied.

Shrug, I prefer to trade for infinite yield. In that sense I use a trailing stop. I wait for a relevant retracement to complete then trail below (or above for shorts) that. Whether it's 20 pips or 200, I'd prefer to grab as much as possible. I don't usually trade ranges, I look for breakouts and trends.

I would imagine Cramer said this:

"Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered."


To add onto what was perviously mentioned, I would suggest trying the coin-toss experiment. Make your entries based entirely on a coin toss, and then develop some sort of exit strategy--either discretional, or mechanical, or both--which will consistently make you profits. That's largely how I learned to profit in almost any situation, and even more important, how to get out of a loss.

And it was George Soros who said, "You have to know when to be a pig." Of course, he only made $1,000,000,000 in one trade which is nothing compared to Kramer who is famous for being an idiot.

To the OP, are you a trend follower? If so, use a trend following exit, such as MA cross, ATR trailing stop, etc. If you're a swing trader, use S/R, Fibs, and Trend lines. If you're a daytrader, try something else. The point being is that your style of trading will determine how you exit. There's tons of free stuff out there that explains them all, but you have to determine what you're after. Once you find what satisfies you, make it as mechanical as possible and stick to it.