arabianights
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wait till it comes back down and hits your stop, duh. You might have to wait a few years but it'll be worth it to tell stories about what might have been.
Rhody Trader
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You should have had the answer for that already determined before you even entered the trade. Either you have a price target or you had a set of criteria.
arabianights
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For the benefit of lots of people, can I highlight this... too much guff about price targets said on this site when imo the bold bit is more important. The most exciting trades generally don't have a price target set...
arabianights
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Although could I also disagree that a target has to be set before every single trade... sometimes when some news comes out and something is obviously way out of line it's better to just hit the bid/lift the offer/whatever and then actually think about the exit in the next couple of seconds - or you'll miss it!
Rhody Trader
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Which essentially means you had a set of exit criteria ahead of time. :cheesy:
Rhody Trader
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One could definitely say a price target (if used) is part of a criteria set. My splitting them apart, though, was to have "criteria" mean things like crossing an MA, an indicator reaching a certain level, a trendline break, etc.
FXSCALPER2
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It really doesn't matter what you do, unless you will never trade again.
nine
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And I have to highlight this error of thinking (sorry an) because trading for excitement is not a good place to be. I trade to earn and every trade has a price target set. None of my winners are exciting. Heck, I can't even remember last weeks winners.
It is a valid point that there are multiple exit strategies which I think was the OP's real question. Its an even more valid point that you don't enter a trade without a management strategy predetermined (worst case stop and exit plan). Examples of useful strategies include:
- limit exits at predetermined numbers from your entry
- limit exits at support or resistance (horizontal, channel, bands)
- limit exits at irrationally exuberant numbers
- trailing stops that trail 3.2 or some number of ATR behind the high or low of bars
- trailing stops behind retracement swings
- trailing stops that become tighter after some level of profit has been gained.
And then you can take a proportion of your profit at a number of points to ensure that a winning trade doesn't become a loser after a certain point while making sure you get exposure to big moves (I call this regret minimization). So you might take 1/3 at first restistance, trail stops at xxx, take another third at 2nd resistance, and trail the stop for the final third.
To all this you can add the possibility of adding to the position as it moves forward, either to replace targets taken or to pyramid the position.
All this is part of trade management (not money management which is about business like risk taking (not the stupid risks that merchant bankers the world around have taken with their customers money in an effort to line their pockets and discredit capitalism.
))
FXSCALPER2
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Trading for exitement is a great idea. The best trades are those when you are basically taking the ****.
mauzj
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Yep. Especially in silly season. In December, the best traders in my office put on large positions (1,000 bunds or so, but in spreads rather than outrights [if they knew how to trade outrights I wouldn't be asking for advice here!]) and then go to the pub. Santa has rewarded them every year for the last 4 years!
arabianights
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And I have to highlight this error of thinking (sorry an) because trading for excitement is not a good place to be. I trade to earn and every trade has a price target set. None of my winners are exciting. Heck, I can't even remember last weeks winners.
It is a valid point that there are multiple exit strategies which I think was the OP's real question. Its an even more valid point that you don't enter a trade without a management strategy predetermined (worst case stop and exit plan). Examples of useful strategies include:
- limit exits at predetermined numbers from your entry
- limit exits at support or resistance (horizontal, channel, bands)
- limit exits at irrationally exuberant numbers
- trailing stops that trail 3.2 or some number of ATR behind the high or low of bars
- trailing stops behind retracement swings
- trailing stops that become tighter after some level of profit has been gained.
And then you can take a proportion of your profit at a number of points to ensure that a winning trade doesn't become a loser after a certain point while making sure you get exposure to big moves (I call this regret minimization). So you might take 1/3 at first restistance, trail stops at xxx, take another third at 2nd resistance, and trail the stop for the final third.
To all this you can add the possibility of adding to the position as it moves forward, either to replace targets taken or to pyramid the position.
All this is part of trade management (not money management which is about business like risk taking (not the stupid risks that merchant bankers the world around have taken with their customers money in an effort to line their pockets and discredit capitalism.
tldr
trade from the gut
Hoggums
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firewalker99
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If you are still fully in (which you should be), now (1.3330) is a good time to take some profits off the table and move up that stop.
