How to Let Your Winning Trades Run: Got ideas?

deaddog said:
I don't pre-set a target. ( I don't day trade)

I do have a plan with specific criteria of when I will exit a trade. When that criteria is met I'm out. There is no wondering what I should do. The trade is over and what happens afterward is something I have no control over. I can only control what I do not what the market does.

No sellers remorse, no woulda, shoulda, coulda; It is one trade out of many and if I followed my plan it was a successful trade.
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My trade on FSLY and OSTK, these trades hit my preset target and I was out of those trades. IF I let them run, I "woulda" double/triple my profit. I want none of that because I have seen money on the table just evaporate in a blink.
 
Peter8519 said:
My trade on FSLY and OSTK, these trades hit my preset target and I was out of those trades. IF I let them run, I "woulda" double/triple my profit. I want none of that because I have seen money on the table just evaporate in a blink.
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Cut looses short; let winners run. Sounds like a plan but hard to do.

There is nothing wrong with taking profit at your target. Nothing bad happens when your sitting in cash.

A successful trade; you followed your plan
 
In the circumstance, with the mindest you ascribe to yourself, I would make an entry, and sell half when I get the feeling this is where I want out, and let the other half ride, with either a trailing stop as Slugar recommended, or a stop that would leave me green on the entire trade. As an example, I would sell half at +2.00 and set a stop no lower than 1.5 below my entry, so if it turns against me and takes out the stop, I'm +2 on half and -1.5 on the other half leaving me +.25 on the entire position. Minus commissions and slippage, of course.
 
KCalhoun said:
I'm notoriously impatient and book small profits early. Any tips for letting winners run, especially for swing trading?

Example I bought PENN MGM off march lows but sold way tf too early.

I'm asking because if for example markets sell off and I swing trade inverses SQQQ UVXY SDOW SPXS SOXS LABD I don't want to get shaken out too soon.
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Ok, if you have no trading plan and all you do is trading by the seat of your pants then here is a true and tested method.

Let your winners run until they become losers. Then just hold, pray and wait until they become break even again. Then close them quickly. Never mind commissions. Break even is good. It means you can play again. BTW, while all this is playing out, keep an eye on the pnl and dream of all the great things you should be able to do if you extrapolate the current theo pnl. Good luck!
 
trendmomentum said:
Ok, if you have no trading plan and all you do is trading by the seat of your pants then here is a true and tested method.

Let your winners run until they become losers. Then just hold, pray and wait until they become break even again. Then close them quickly. Never mind commissions. Break even is good. It means you can play again. BTW, while all this is playing out, keep an eye on the pnl and dream of all the great things you should be able to do if you extrapolate the current theo pnl. Good luck!
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A trader who has problems cutting winners short, is a trader who doesn't have confidence in his plan.

And a trader who doesn't have enough confidence in his plan to let it run to completion without interference, is by definition a trader who isn't ready to put money at risk.
 
This is just me, YMMV.

I set stop-limit OCO orders for profit targets and stop-loss levels that I set at the time of the trade entry.

And I run my trading platform on a workstation that is on a desk directly behind my main desk, as I do not want to watch the order books and DOMs. Then I usually minimize the windows tbh. I find that if I’m not glued to every nuance for every open position that I have - that I tend to have better fidelity with my swing trading strategy.
 
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