@PandaWarrior: Once again, this is one of the main problems that inhibits consistent profitability in trading. Learning what to do, and actually doing what you learned under pressure are two different things. And once again, it goes back to one's desire to maximize the chance of gain, not to maximize the gain itself. Getting out of winning trades prematurely, is an obvious manifestation of this phenomena. All it serves to do however, is make one feel better AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME. In reality, it is to the severe detriment of long-term performance. One has to realize that trading is a big-picture endeavor, and what feels good in the short term, is most likely counter-productive in the long term. Quite simply, leaving a large amount of money on the table, or worse yet; missing a major winning trade, is just as bad , if not worse, than a losing trade. The market however, lulls you into complacency, and even reenforces this natural behavior, because it spends more time in ranges than in trends, where small profits quickly vanish. You then learn to instinctively cover trades before they return to your entry point, or turn into losers.

What makes matters worse, is that that your exits command top priority in the trade decision hierarchy, followed by trade size, and entry point. Liquidations are far more important than initiations, and harder to get right. When you enter a trade it is the most hopeful point in the trade cycle, but come exit time, stress, cognitive load, emotions and bias, have reared their ugly heads, just in time to distort your expected value of the trade.

Having a predetermined target and sticking to it is not the answer, in my opinion. In most cases, people are going to get out early anyway, and it is tantamount to trying to predict the market. It is more important to concentrate on projecting losses, risk management, and finding signals that produce trades that are well defined, have a proven edge, and are reproducible, rather than trying to predict the market.

This means that path dependency is what matters and awareness of it's variability, duration, and signal are critical components to optimizing any trade, not some arbitrary line or inferred sufficient profit. If price action or your expectation dictates the market should continue in your favor, why get out ? And, why use a target, that you're not going to allow yourself to hit as your exit point? Exit the trade when price action/signal tells you the trade is not good anymore.

I embrace this thought process.....up to the point where I try to embrace the prospect of the uncertainty of where I might eventually exit the trade, either for profit or loss. My brain runs over the countless days where I've seen CL reverse a 200 tick short move and end the day positive.....or where its ranged in between two levels all day...and letting a trade simply go all day ends with a small net loss or a small net gain or flat, when you may have been up 30-60 ticks at any one point.....

I functionally understand letting it run on the 200-400 tick days and adding size as it goes makes up for the flat or small gain/small loss days.....but emotionally it still doesn't feel right. Something tells me I need to make money every day or at least give it my best shot......

What does FEEL good is capturing some pre-planned portion of the day's move regardless of what that amount is...as long as its more than I normally risk....and even if I've left a reasonably large portion of the day on the table.

It seems to me there needs to be or should be a happy medium somewhere in here??????????????

EDIT:

This being said, I fully recognize the secret to winning long term is letting the winners run....the question has always been, how far???????

.... Once again, this is one of the main problems that inhibits consistent profitability in trading. Learning what to do, and actually doing what you learned under pressure are two different things.

And once again, it goes back to one's desire to maximize the chance of gain, not to maximize the gain itself. Getting out of winning trades prematurely, is an obvious manifestation of this phenomena. All it serves to do however, is make one feel better AT THAT MOMENT IN TIME.

In reality, it is to the severe detriment of long-term performance. One has to realize that trading is a big-picture endeavor, and what feels good in the short term, is most likely counter-productive in the long term. Quite simply, leaving a large amount of money on the table, or worse yet; missing a major winning trade, is just as bad , if not worse, than a losing trade.

The market however, lulls you into complacency, and even reinforces this natural behavior, because it spends more time in ranges than in trends, where small profits quickly vanish. You then learn to instinctively cover trades before they return to your entry point, or turn into losers.

What makes matters worse, is that that your exits command top priority in the trade decision hierarchy, followed by trade size, and entry point. Liquidations are far more important than initiations, and harder to get right. When you enter a trade it is the most hopeful point in the trade cycle, but come exit time, stress, cognitive load, emotions and bias, have reared their ugly heads, just in time to distort your expected value of the trade. Having a predetermined target and sticking to it is not the answer, in my opinion. In most cases, people are going to get out early anyway, and it is tantamount to trying to predict the market. It is more important to concentrate on projecting losses, risk management, and finding signals that produce trades that are well defined, have a proven edge, and are reproducible, rather than trying to out-guess the market.

This means that path dependency is what matters and awareness of it's variability, duration, and signal are critical components to optimizing any trade, not some arbitrary line or inferred sufficient profit. If price action or your expectation dictates the market should continue in your favor, why get out ? And, why use a target, that you're not going to allow yourself to hit as your exit point? Exit the trade when price action/signal tells you the trade is not good anymore.

.....My only edge is I'm smart enough to know, that I’m dumb enough to know, that I don’t know the answers. Instead, I observe, and try to uncover what game is working and play that game. I don't cling to labels - breakout trader, trend trader, mean reversion trader.

A classic case:

For 2014, in order to protect my capital from myself, i have decided to split my capital into two strategies. One, that provides my daily nut (a risk averse approach) and the other that attempts to maximize the chance of gain, exactly as TT projects. The latter is the builder of wealth and the former to provide an income. The profoundness of what his statements are unquestionable and most of us will likely talk a long to appreciate the power of this. Fewer still will attempt it, and most that attempt will fail. However, that is why I must try.

At the same time, the fearful (prudent!) in me says, I must split capital strategically enough to make sure that I don't go down in flames while attempting to do so. Ironically this brouhaha about CME fee hikes and my general move into FX has made this transition (realization) easier. I hope to report my trials and failures (of which, no doubt, there will be many) in the future.

I was going to say something similar to this but deucalion beat me to it

anyways, for the first half of the day/week/month/quarter you should consider taking quick profits on some or all of your position to build up a profit cushion. Then, leverage that profit cushion for the last half of the day/week/month/quarter to let trades run further or going all-in-all-out on every trade.

No, you don't trade your p&l - you trade the market. You make trade decisions based on the kind of market you are trading, i.e., range vs. trend, volatility etc. - not your p&l.

Imagine that trade management is like grilling a steak. If you like your steak well-done, you're not going to take it off the grill after 3 minutes, because you're hungry and can't wait for it to fully cook. And you're not going to take it off the grill at some arbitrary time, because some cookbook said a well-done 2-inch steak should be cooked for 8 minutes. Instead, you are going to observe the steak, maybe poke it with your finger, or cut it open a little to see if its done. And only when it is cooked to perfection, do you take it off the grill. This applies to EVERY steak you cook.

Of course, that all depends on how YOU trade. Heck, in some cases, I might take a trade off because I didn't like the way the wind blew across my a$&, and in other cases I'm more comfortable to let my entire position or a portion of my position run and run and run because I've already built up substantial profits from a previous trade. I hear what you're saying but successful trading in general is not like cooking. It's not a black or white thing. Often you will need to adjust your size if you see something that you don't like or your money management strategy if it's not working for you. That's how I trade anyways and it works masterfully.