Closing trades: What strategies do you use?

There are many well-known strategies that can successfully be used to know when to open a trade. I have found that knowing when to close a trade is equally important, if not more important, than knowing when to open a trade. Sometimes an open trade is in a loosing position and about to rebound. Sometimes an open trade is in a winning position and about to turn around.

What strategies do you use when determining when to close a trade?

I think that this is a very good post because a lot of beginners do not know when to exit the trade. I have had similar question in my head for several days now but haven’t found a time to formulate it 
According to several different forex forum topics there are many tools in the trader’s toolbox: MA-s; fibos; Pivot levels; Support and resistance levels etc to use for exit. I think there aren´t any perfect method in that sense. All those leave some pips on the table, especially when you are novice trader – at least I have not yet found the way to close trades in the very top or low .

You will never find a way to consistently close a trade at the very top or bottom. You test your method thoroughly and arrive at a profit target that is most likely to be hit. This may involve trailing stops or using specific targets that is for the trader to determine based on his or her experience and trading methods.

This is good information. One of the strategies that I have seen employed successfully is taking a portion of your profits off the table at t set point and moving your stop to BE making the rest a free trade with a trailing stop. While this may work for a trade to is going in your direction you also need to consider a trade that moves against you.

In those situations you should always have predetermined place (price) to get out of a trade if you should choose the wrong direction. A trader I know once told me that when a trade setup no longer makes sense (doesn't fit the setup criteria) there is no reason to stay in it. So while an emergency SL is in effect it is not the only place/time to exit a trade that is not moving into profitable territory. So many new traders fail because they are afraid to take a loss becuase it is going to hit their bottom line and have less money in the trading account. But if they would just exit the trade a new one will come along that will aloow them to make up those losses. But I digress... exits for losing trades are as unique to the trader as exits for a winning trade.

The end result is like SP says, you need to be in touch with your method and have tested the various combinations of exit strategies for both winning and losing positions to determine the one that works best not only for profitability but also for your personality similar to how your trading method/strategy should also fit your personality.

I never thought I would be the one to say it but trading psychology has as much to do with this as does technique. I have a number of trades where I take my profits off the table and price keeps on going. But I don't care, because in the end I know I am still profitable but that's how my psychology works ;-)

This is a post from Dopey that helped me a lot in taking a decision on targets

set a limit 3X the distance my stop is. so if i entered with my stop at 50 pips away, my target exit will be 150 pips away from entry.

either that or, in some instances where i think the fundamentals are very supportive of a long-term trend forming, i'll pyramid using ATR. here is a video that illustrates:

this latter strategy would have worked fantastically well on the decline in the yen we're currently seeing.

Closing trade or Exit point is basic element of a trading system/strategy. When we open a trade, we have to know exactly where the target and when to exit.
I think most of traders use two methods to exit a trade: setting up support/resistance points and setting up conditions (MA crossing etc.)