A question for pro traders. Profit targets or runners?

Depends on the environment that day

Trending day……

Pullback – normal;

Leave it on – take off half if it fails


Pullback – to a range;

Exit if price breaks out of the range against – probably even reverse


Retrace;

Leave on last half unless it fails – then take it off & reverse

Reenter first half if it holds


Reversal;

Reverse - duh

============

Ranging day…

Utilize Targets

Note

Targets flies in the face of the uncertain nature of the mkt – unless of course price is in a range and you’re trading same

=========

Normal day….

There will be 2 extremes and a body comprising the daily bar

Trade accordingly

==================

Trailing stops

If you’re lazy

===============

Trading isn’t about perfection, or getting every little last bit…

Rather, It’s about reading then reacting to the best of one’s ability

Above are general - and must be fine tuned to your instrument



RN
 
Quote from kid.fx.cross:

put it on with a tight stop and never take a profit
More...

Ahh, I remember an oldtimer who liked doing that too :)


Another guy I know has a saying....You can take small profits everyday and not take a loss, one day you will come in without a job, or you can take small losses everyday and then one day come in and be the BOSS!

Just a general statement as I know scalpers who can make a very good living too but then there is no "fixed" one size fits all. Adapt with either your strat and/or instrument. Markets always change.

Cheers
 
first i'm not a pro.

scaling out at pre-determined exit levels gives the best chance of captiring 40 - 70% of the entire move. I try to keep one lot for the home run move and usually exit the rest of the lots. I fully expect that one lot to either break even or make a small loss.
Again - this works only on trending days which is not common.

After an hour or two into the day, if the day looks like its going to be range bound, then i exit all at once at predetermined levels.


I watch this guy lakai on tradeitdontdateit.com. Without getting into an argument if he for real or not, he has this incredible patience to just sit on an open profitable position for hours.. (the p/l goes up and down 10k without bothering him)

There is no one answer to your question.... it just depends..
 
For a SPY long trade: I set fixed profit tgts for the majority of my position and then, with the remaining, I hold until price trades 2 pennies below the low of the previous directional bar on the time frame I'm trading on. This way I can hold in case price continues in my desired direction but still have an objective exit in case it does not.

Vice versa for a short trade.
 
Quote from Zr1Trader:

Ahh, I remember an oldtimer who liked doing that too :)


Another guy I know has a saying....You can take small profits everyday and not take a loss, one day you will come in without a job, or you can take small losses everyday and then one day come in and be the BOSS!

Just a general statement as I know scalpers who can make a very good living too but then there is no "fixed" one size fits all. Adapt with either your strat and/or instrument. Markets always change.

Cheers
More...
the thing I think about AND WORRY ABOUT everyday is, am I not the same as the scalper? Willing to survive large paper losses just to take a small realized profit? And justifying it all because I trade a spread portfolio instead of a single instrument?

The one thing that keeps me going is, I trade that Australian Dollar against the US dollar, and as far as I can tell, even though I hit it small a few times, I am a net loser in that pair in 2013. Yet, the whole account (knock on wood) is showing me a profit.

I could have done better just going long QQQ on Jan1. I got heavy into starting small and averaging down, and lost 30% in just 4 hours getting on the wrong side of some FOMC minutes. I was shell shocked and didn't trade for three months.

Finally, I got over my fear of losing it all. Now, I just put it all on and let them stop me out a little at a time.

anyway, I can't complain. 2013 was profitable but nothing to brag about, and there are still a few days to go, and in this business, anything can happen in a few days.
 
Quote from kid.fx.cross:

the thing I think about AND WORRY ABOUT everyday is, am I not the same as the scalper? Willing to survive large paper losses just to take a small realized profit?
More...

I'm a scalper and I've met a few other scalpers and none of us is willing to take large losses, realized or unrealized. My usual profit is 20 ticks and my max loss is 15 ticks (very rare to have a stop that wide). The two I've met use even smaller stops.

Do you know anyone who actually makes a living by trying to get small profits out of large unrealized losing positions?
 
Quote from NoDoji:



Do you know anyone who actually makes a living by trying to get small profits out of large unrealized losing positions?
More...

Nodoji,

I know people who go for 1 tick per trade and they trade big size in t complex, 99% of the time they can scratch or take 1 tick, if the market goes against them sharply for instance on breaking news of some sort, it can wipe out their week, month, quarter ,whole year, or even their career with a lien put on their house. This happens if they get too confident and start sizing too large. That's the thing, it's hard to stay small and win 99% of the time, you get greedy, then when a vola event comes it can be dangerous.

But 99% of the days they make money. 1% of the days can get ugly.
 
Quote from Canados:



I know the story "let the profit run" ?
More...

If I have to guess what you might say in the future about that the quote, I would not be surprised if it would something like: "I thought I knew the story "let the profit run", but I now realize I only knew of the story..".
 
Quote from NoDoji:

I'm a scalper and I've met a few other scalpers and none of us is willing to take large losses, realized or unrealized. My usual profit is 20 ticks and my max loss is 15 ticks (very rare to have a stop that wide). The two I've met use even smaller stops.

Do you know anyone who actually makes a living by trying to get small profits out of large unrealized losing positions?
More...
I have tight stops on all my positions. My profits can be 20 times the stop or more. The large loss is simply the drawdown of everything all put together. In your case, if you get stopped out twice in a row, your loss is 30 ticks, just trying to win 20
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top