The ideal way to exit is to do so on divergence the other way. You would then enter a new trade coming back the other way as well. However, I have settled on a minimum of 12 points per contract for the short term trades and I like to obtain a minimum of 1000 points on my entire long term position (total, not per contract of course). Also, the key to trading is not to overextend. A trader can do this simply by setting a minimum amount of capital per contract which is way above the margin amount. For example, a prudent minimum amount per contract in the ES would be no less than 32k and I actually rarely ever let myself get even that extended. That way, I don't have to worry about setting stop losses etc. Also, I do not start with the maximum position , rather I work into it, so that when the market moves against me , even in a big fashion, I can add in. If reading this journal, it can be noticed that I have struggled with which smaller time frames to use and have come back to a happy medium between my weekly position trading and what I call very short term day trading. I also attempted to use stops which is not my style at all. Stops need to be set according to portfolio size--If you were all in on the first entry, then that is where a tight stop should be used. The money is in the bigger more general swings, not in the scalping in my view. In terms of when to get out? I try not to lose more than 2% of my entire portfolio on one idea.
Thanks for the nice comments and please feel free to post any time-B1S2
