My friend with whom I honed my core trading plan automated one of the setups and his system sets a fixed stop and target on every trade (1:2). It's a strategy with a positive win rate and double reward to risk. The fact that sometimes price runs much farther than the fixed target is irrelevant. There's no predictable way to try and outsmart an already solid system. By trying to do that, you generally end up with a worse result.
After letting 20-tick or more trades run back to break even and then mismanaging subsequent trades, I decided to go for a fixed minimum target on my trades. The result over time is far better than trying to pick specific targets for each trade. Because I'm not automated, I can afford the luxury of locking in my minimum target and letting the trade run in situations where a much larger target is likely, and sometimes I catch those. But I never let 20 ticks get away from me on a standard trade.
If you took 20 ticks on every trade that offers such, would your results over time be better or worse?
