Under what conditions do you exit a trade before your target or stop has been hit?

February 20th, 2015, 06:33 AM

With day & swing trading forex specifically I've noticed more times than not that once price is in the green by a good amount after price has moved for a few hours or a day that randomly there will be a volatility spike, sometimes non-news related, that'll simply wipe everything out for the past day or week. Sometimes this works in your favor and other times it doesn't. Holding the trades with risk after they've progressed can be a ticking time-bomb with completely unexpected results on a small sample size. But if the trader has the fortitude to last it'll probably balance out in the end once volatility works in their favor a few times.

February 20th, 2015, 07:42 AM

It depends on your method & your comfort level.
For my intraday trades I exit when

-SL or target hit
-Reversal setup develop
-half hour before market close whatever be the price.

February 20th, 2015, 11:46 AM

This is actually pretty insightful and shines some light on the question even though it came from the spoo thread. A lot of my trade's targets were a bit ambitious at around 1:4 risk/reward or more and would probably be best to find some areas to scale out within the framework of the price structure.

Big Mike

I understand where you are coming from, but you might try looking at it slightly different. Don't be so static with the position, instead just scale in and out around the core position. You don't need to hit a homerun on 100% of the contracts you trade in the position.

You could start with 50% of your size, then add, subtract, add, subtract and so on throughout the day(s) around the core position.

Mike

February 20th, 2015, 12:01 PM

Never

February 20th, 2015, 01:00 PM

Itchymoku

A lot of my trade's targets were a bit ambitious at around 1:4 risk/reward or more

What criteria do you use to determine your exits?

February 20th, 2015, 01:14 PM

deaddog

What criteria do you use to determine your exits?

Usually right behind areas of resistance if I'm going long, So the completely spectrum of a range from support to resistance. I've also used the mid point or multiples of what I've risked (an expectancy) and other variables inside the range if it's very large. If I do use some expectancy I still try to incorporate some resistance levels close by into the equation. What do you use?

February 20th, 2015, 01:53 PM

Itchymoku

Usually right behind areas of resistance if I'm going long, So the completely spectrum of a range from support to resistance. I've also used the mid point or multiples of what I've risked (an expectancy) and other variables inside the range if it's very large. If I do use some expectancy I still try to incorporate some resistance levels close by into the equation. What do you use?

S&R. If I don't get the required R:R I don't take the trade.

I play with the S&R; I may use a trend channel or horizontal Resistance for a Target area but always horizontal for my stops.

For long term trades I'll stay with the trade as long as it stays within the trend channel.

February 23rd, 2015, 09:16 AM

tturner86

If by price exhaustion you mean trader exhaustion then yes.

To be honest I try to hold to target or stop, but recently haven't been able to. Too often I spook myself out of good trades or hold onto losers out of spite because I dropped a good trade. Gotta kick that habit quick.

I read something that applies to that recently in Brett Steenbarger's "The daily trading coach"
You should " draw on emotion".... That means breaking your trading rules should hurt in some way.
Write down after each of your rules : "- ......or else run two miles ! " for example....

In that way you can put emotional force into your trading rules. ;-)

just my 2 cents

February 25th, 2015, 04:48 AM

You exit when you get the opposite signal.Note,when you switch, that the price usually tend to go faster in the trend direction.

February 27th, 2015, 01:42 PM

Cachevary

You exit when you get the opposite signal.Note,when you switch, that the price usually tend to go faster in the trend direction.

Trading signal to signal is one of my goals.

Under what conditions do you exit a trade before your target or stop has been hit?

Discussion in Traders Hideout

Under what conditions do you exit a trade before your target or stop has been hit?