The exit of a trade: how? when? where?

[Splitlink]

That channel is just an arbitrary line --it doesn't mean much, other than to give an idea of what I think the trend is and the steepness.

I am trying to get above B and stay there.

Lightning McQueen and I have had an exchange of posts on splitting trades. I've tried it several times and put the stop of the trading half right down to where I open---and I still get stopped out in the afternoon. Very frustrating, especially when it goes up, afterwards. I haven't figured out a good answer to my afternoon work problem

Split

 

[Splitlink]

That channel is just an arbitrary one line --it doesn't mean much, other than to give an idea of what I think the trend is and the steepness.

I am trying to get above B and stay there.

Lightning McQueen and I have had an exchange of posts on splitting trades. I've tried it several times and put the stop of the trading half right down to where I open---and I still get stopped out in the afternoon. Very frustrating, especially when it goes up, afterwards. I haven't figured out a good answer to my afternoon work problem

Split

Stopped at 6549. That's solved my problems

 

[barjon]

..................... I haven't figured out a good answer to my afternoon work problem .....................

Split

ah, us retired folk are just meant to lurch from pleasure to pleasure and not take bread from the mouths of those who must work to support us There you are enjoying the good life, sun and sangria so pooof to work :cheesy:

cheers

jon

 

[Splitlink]

ah, us retired folk are just meant to lurch from pleasure to pleasure and not take bread from the mouths of those who must work to support us There you are enjoying the good life, sun and sangria so pooof to work :cheesy:

cheers

jon

As far as me and trading is concerned, you could not have picked a better word than lurching

You were right. The 0730 high was the signal for me to take profits and I should, if I think that the trend is down, have reversed as close to that point as possible.

Oh, well. We must leave something for the next guy, mustn't we? (I never did believe that one).

Split

 

[barjon]

As far as me and trading is concerned, you could not have picked a better word than lurching

You were right. The 0730 high was the signal for me to take profits and I should, if I think that the trend is down, have reversed as close to that point as possible.

Oh, well. We must leave something for the next guy, mustn't we? (I never did believe that one).

Split

split

yeah, if you were getting ready to go at your B line then zooming in to the 5min probably pointed to around 6555 - only 6 point difference but that's 27% of your trade. I establish a "kill zone" around potential exit points and when it gets into it zoom in to lower timeframe and rely on the price action there. Excuse the granny and eggs flavour - I know you know the game

good trading

jon

 

[Splitlink]

split

yeah, if you were getting ready to go at your B line then zooming in to the 5min probably pointed to around 6555 - only 6 point difference but that's 27% of your trade. I establish a "kill zone" around potential exit points and when it gets into it zoom in to lower timeframe and rely on the price action there. Excuse the granny and eggs flavour - I know you know the game

good trading

jon

Not at all, we are all different. Depends on the age Going to work in the afternoons
keeps one young.

Split

 

[Splitlink]

Jon,

Take a look at my posts 97 and 101 and you will see what I mean about splitting trades.
If I had split my trade and put a stop at my entry point of 6527, I would have lost the traded half and seen the price go up 90 points in the afternoon. This has happened to me twice before this month and so am taking Don's advice and going off the take half and leave half idea. It's almost as if I am being watched.

Split

 

[firewalker99]

Jon,

This has happened to me twice before this month and so am taking Don's advice and going off the take half and leave half idea. It's almost as if I am being watched.

Split

Excuse me for interrupting... so if you are going off that idea, how do you treat your stop then? You don't take half out anymore and just leave the stop where it is until your final target reached? (a chart example would be nice

 

[Splitlink]

Excuse me for interrupting... so if you are going off that idea, how do you treat your stop then? You don't take half out anymore and just leave the stop where it is until your final target reached? (a chart example would be nice

Hallo FW,

Because of work schedule I cannot go to a computer after 1330 and I was hoping to get my trade rolled over until the next morning. With that being the object, I gave the trade maximum room, right back to my entry point, which would still give me a 50% profit on the whole trade. I have tried this on three occasions, which, to me, disputes the idea given by several authors, that the trade for the day can be determined, after the first hour, by watching the price activity over that period. My experience, on many occasions, is that what happens in the morning is completely different to what happens in the afternoon.

That being the case, I feel that I might as well close the trade at the best opportunity I see , or leave a smaller stop. But I have lost all of my half position on three occasions, recently, and see no point on leaving a stop on, at all. Better to close the trade and resign myself to being a morning trader.

Chart later.

Regards, Split

 

[firewalker99]

Hallo FW,

Because of work schedule I cannot go to a computer after 1330 and I was hoping to get my trade rolled over until the next morning. With that being the object, I gave the trade maximum room, right back to my entry point, which would still give me a 50% profit on the whole trade. I have tried this on three occasions, which, to me, disputes the idea given by several authors, that the trade for the day can be determined, after the first hour, by watching the price activity over that period. My experience, on many occasions, is that what happens in the morning is completely different to what happens in the afternoon.

I'd have to agree on that part. I've seen price make a complete U-turn sometimes in the afternoon, especially when US markets open.

 

[Splitlink]

When I said "trade for the day", I meant "trend for the day". Sorry.

Split

 

[barjon]

Jon,

Take a look at my posts 97 and 101 and you will see what I mean about splitting trades.
If I had split my trade and put a stop at my entry point of 6527, I would have lost the traded half and seen the price go up 90 points in the afternoon. This has happened to me twice before this month and so am taking Don's advice and going off the take half and leave half idea. It's almost as if I am being watched.

Split

split

true - as fire says, ftse looks to the dow in the afternoon and that's complicated because the dow often has a false opening move (the infamous 10 o'clock reversal ).

in this case I think I talked about putting your stop at just below channel or A, not way back to entry level. You'd have still got stopped out but the end result would have been not much different to where you finished up overall and you'd have had the protection of the price continuing to head north if it had.

good trading

jon

 

[Splitlink]

Today's example is about tightish stops. Remember that I betspread with Fins, which some people give a bad name.

The main trend is still going down for me, but I had an idea that there was going to be a rally and I made trade A for 6543. It went up and I put a stop at 6543. Nervousness, but I was out without a loss.

Trade B was for 6545 with a stop at 6541. This stopped me out for 4 points

Trade C was for 6547 and it is still running at 6568.

It shows that tight stops --just 2 points plus the spread-- can pay off if one is confident and persistent. How many goes could I have had? The risk reward ratio was good, but after a couple more failures, it might have got into my thick head that I was trading against the trend!

I think I am going to ,simply, close the trade. Tomorrow is another day, but there are still 2 hours to decide

Stop Press. Just closed at 6573. The decision was taken for me

Split

 

[Splitlink]

Thanks for the feedback on this- After today, I'm beginning to like the idea of taking the lot! It's like the intraday trader's argument against overnight . Get out with no worries. I can use the same argument, "Get out at 1330 and come back the next morning"

Good trading

Split

 

[Splitlink]

I've had a busy morning and I got a bit pessimistic about the outcome, but it came right, in the end.

Mistakes were trading long, when the trend is down.

7 trades- serious overtrading for me, I admit. I kept my stops short against the trend and paid for it. Here is the P/L:

-4;0;-4;-6;9;-7;22 = 10 points . The last 2 trades were short.

Split

 

[firewalker99]

Ok people this thread has had a bit of a standstill (I'm guilty of not posting myself), but it would be nice if some traders would post a chart of their exit signals. That way we can start discussing practice instead of theory.

I'll start with one myself.

This is a trade that I posted in the Candlesticks not profitable thread
(http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showpost.php?p=343624&postcount=247) the entry was based on a hammer but that's not relevant in this thread.

The exit is however, and after my first target was hit I moved my stop to breakeven.
Price continued in the right direction and I decided to close my position on the high volume wide range bar. For me this is the public coming in, high volume on buying with a wide spread bar...

In this particular case I got it quite right as you can see in the second chart what happened next.

 

[firewalker99]

Unusually strong trending day

Let me compensate for the bragging part by saying that unfortunately in strong trending days this kind of strategy cost me valuable points my exiting much too early.

Entry and exit are annotated on the chart.
Comments & suggestions as always appreciated.

 

[firewalker99]

Suggestion

I am thankful for the following suggestion I received:

"Rather than exit when you see such danger signs, why not close your stop up to a point where it looks as if the danger is materialising (ie: the point at which you would enter the other way if you were going to trade that sign). That would have cost you a couple of points in your first example, but gained you many in the second."

 

[jacinto]

hi FW,

thought i could share these charts for your thread.

first chart is what plans the entry

second charts are what make me exit....same chart different timeframe and reasons to exit

in hindsight, should have used chart 2 as target, instead of chart 3. a good trade all in all

and in further hindsight, i should have stayed (another 100 pips downside)

j

 

[firewalker99]

hi FW,

thought i could share these charts for your thread.

first chart is what plans the entry

second charts are what make me exit....same chart different timeframe and reasons to exit

in hindsight, should have used chart 2 as target, instead of chart 3. a good trade all in all

and in further hindsight, i should have stayed (another 100 pips downside)

j

Thanks for the contribution!
My question to you: did you exit your position at that particular point all at once (meaning no scaling out)?

Also on the one chart you use candles on the other one bars, do you give any special meaning to the means or representation (or is it just me being a pain in the ass )