All traders have their own trading process, but after they enter a trade they “expect” price to move/trend in the direction of their trade. they could expect price to trend just a few ticks if they are scalping. They could expect price to trend minutes or hours if they are a day trader. Or they could expect price to trend for days if they are a swing trader.
Each trader’s process must answer the following questions before they enter a trade:
1. what is the trend direction they are going to trade?
2. Where is the beginning of that trend?
3. How long do they expect that trend to last?
How do each of you answer these questions before you enter a trade?
thanks
toucan
I've always tried to avoid jumping into a trend and have always looked for reasons why directional moves reverse and tried to bet on those reversal points.
I think you may have missed my point; perhaps I was unclear. But we do agree that a profit target does not imply the need to exit:Profit targets should be based upon the performance of your trade strategy...not calling a turn in advance.
But why discrete points of assessment rather than continuous? What if the market does something notable between two such profit/assessment points? Do we ignore it? This is one of the reasons I think the concept of targets is superfluous. The other reason is this: If the market does reach your target and looks to remain solidly in trend, would you exit? Probably not. So what is the point of an arguably arbitrary target?A profit target doesn't imply you must exit at + 5 points or any other target your strategy has identified but it does imply when you reach that target...you need to do another assessment to determine whether to take that profit or stay in the trade because of something had showed up between point A (departure) and point B (destination) that would merit staying in the trade a little longer beyond the profit target (destination).
I question the veracity, or at least the stability, of such averages in a dynamic environment.For example, if your trade strategy averages about +5 points (your destination)...why would a trader set a profit target of +20 points in hopes of catching a trend ?
Are they not looking to catch trends (i.e., directional movement) within the spread?Spreaders are all dead, I guess.
Directional movement within the context of your time frame.define trend trading.
Price, mostly.What are the inputs
another good point that i hadn't thought of.Spreaders are all dead, I guess.
i agree. but once you are in then you expect price to move/trend in the direction of the trade.I've always tried to avoid jumping into a trend and have always looked for reasons why directional moves reverse and tried to bet on those reversal points.