Hi guys,

I wanted to pick your brain on trade exits. I recently decided to analyze the subparts of my trades and am finding myself having great entries time and time again. I usually will set my entry on a pullback and will get in on a buy, for example, while it is still falling. I will usually base this on an overall analysis of the general direction the market is going, wait for a pullback, and get in on a Fibonacci retracement point (38,50,62) depending on how strong overall I see the general direction going. I am noticing that my entries are very very precise and, while it seemed it would continue to fall in the above example, it quickly changes direction in my favor after I get in. This tells me that my entries seem to be good.

However, I noticed that my exits are awful, either getting out way too early or having it change directions on me and losing the profit I had gained and ending up with a loss. My exits are usually based on either 1. the next resistance point, usually based on where the pullback started (the top of the hill before falling on the pullback) or 2. a measured move of the whole move moving up which I used to calculate my Fib retracement. However, I also notice that sometimes my target has to be roughly the 50% mark of what I thought was the original retracement if I was incorrect and the general direction was going down as opposed to up (in which case, I generally should not have gotten in on the retracement on the bullish side and gotten in on the retracement on the bearish side instead).

I am trying to clean up my trading so wanted to reach out for any advice you guys may have on polishing my exits and what you use to guide yourself. Another option I am seeing is scaling out based on each point I see above. Another issue I see I am having is sometimes I am having a problem knowing the general direction the market is going when basing my trades on these fib retracements (incorrectly calculating a bullish retracement instead of a bearish one).

If you could offer any advice on how you have cleaned up your exits and what you are looking for or methods you use, I would very much appreciate it. Also, if you could tell me what you use to guide yourself on the market being generally bullish or bearish, that would be great as well (for now, I am just using a MACD and longer time frame candles to guide myself). (if a picture of the above is helpful, please let me know and I'll upload).

Thanks guys!