taking partial profits vs a full profit exit

does anyone know of a study comparing the money earned by taking partial profits versus exiting all at once?

yesterday, i could have exited my position for a $150 win but instead took only $100 (66% off so 33% of my position remaining). the trade took about 6 hours.

fast forward to 14 more hours later, i exited the remaining 33% position for an additional $45 profit.

so in summary:

scenario A, full profit exit: $150 profit in only 6 hours

scenario B, partial profit: $145 profit in 20 hours

this is why i'm wondering if anyone has done some research into this. it seems i would've been better off just exiting all at once. it would have taken less time and i would've earned slightly more.

It depends on your exit rules. I'm using that method, but I'm not using fixed distance for exit. It depends on market conditions and calculated automatically. Also there are another thing you have to think about. What to do if price will not hit the final exit and reverse? If you are using hedge you have to calculate remain and so on. It is complicated but works good.

My stats say that there is no big difference between close all or partially. No difference in profit. But there is a big difference in margin taken and in DD size.

It all depends on your objectives.

If you want to maximize your profits, press your winners and keep them until they reach your take profit.

If you want a smoother equity curve, scaling out is OK.

Excellent Question!! I too wondered this same thing many years ago and I did a study to find out what would be more profitable based on how I trade. I won't keep you in suspense...I found out that (for me) it is more profitable to just set a reasonably achievable target that can be repeated over and over again, and take all positions off when price reaches that target. I also found that the most reasonable and repeatable profit target (again based on how I trade)was between 2.8x and 3.5x. Will this work for you? I don't know because only YOU know how you trade. But to figure it out you will have to have your past statistics or start a new study...I always recommend at least 100 trades. (Yes that's what I did). Here are some of the things you need to know to find out if you should set a hard limit and take all your profits or not.

1. How often does any give trade reach 1xR; 2xr; 3xR...ect. up to 10xR. Even after you exit a trade does price continue in your direction? How far?
2. Based on how YOU enter (not anyone else), How often does price move against you? And how far does it go before it turns and goes your direction? (could your entries be more efficient?) This effects where you place your stop AND thus your profit-to-stop ratio (1xR; 2xR; 3xR, etc.)
3. How often does price "come up short" of your target and then turn against you and hit your stop. This helps you understand if your limit too extreme...
4. How often does price retrace against your position WITHOUT hitting your stop?

When I did my study I found that if I took partial profit I was only increasing the number of pips gained...but NOT the size of the profit. Example: I have a position with 2 lots. I take off one at 50 pips and the other at 100. I gain 150 pips and $150. If I held both lots to 100 pips, I gain 100 pips, but $200 profit.

Most don't like to close their position while price is moving in their favor...they become greedy. They don't want to "leave money on the table". However, by setting realistic, reasonable, and repeatable targets, that you cane achieve 60-80% of the time, you can build profit faster...even if you pip count is slightly lower. Remember in this game what your bread and butter is consistency...NOT huge runs...quite frankly those big runs only occur once or twice per year (the way I trade). While waiting for those "big moves" I could've made 30-40 smaller profit gains and way out paced the profitablility of the "big move"

It depends on how good your system is about hitting target. Generally speaking, I'd take partial profits.