Any tips for scaling into and out of a trade?

Beginner Questions
#1

I understand the idea of this, but when do you actually pull the trigger to add to your position or take away?

Is it based on some profit target maybe or a % or your SL?

Do you already know you’re going to do this before the trade or does it really depend on what you’re seeing on the charts live /during a review?

Does it matter whether you’re scalping (makes most sense to me here since I’m watching the charts) or trading on something higher like the daily? Like do daily traders do scaling too?

Thanks!

1 Like
#2

What works for you is the best approach. Daily T/F is the most profitable according to back testing by No Nonsense Forex.

2 Likes
#3

I have come round to thinking that scaling in/out is a way of massaging results, so that these metrics look better, rather than making your trading more profitable.

1 Like
#4

I was reluctant to chime in on this because I am unclear on this, as well. I trade D1, and my trades could last weeks. I often get shaken out before then, but that’s besides the point.

If you scale in, and price pulls back three days later or a week later, you just lost your perfect entry.

This is right on the nose.

And I’m actually on the fence about scaling in. I prefer to scale in at the beginning of the trend. Once the random park walk starts, price action can get choppy.

However, I’ve seen some very clear signs that it’s favourable to add, and I didn’t because I was scared, then price goes to the moon.

I, myself, and trying to get more comfortable with pyramiding.

#5

Can you explain this a bit more please? Do you mean it’s just about looking cool, or something?
Do you think it demonstrates a lack of confidence in the trade?

#6

Yes, lack of confidence certainly, but perhaps that is just another way of describing over-assessment of risk - two sides of the same coin?

The way most trading is taught is that the trader spots an exotic chart or indicator signal and enters before anyone else has seen this. They ride the price move and exit on the same sort of logic.

These are implicitly transient situations and therefore what counts is preserving capital so as to be ready for the next “strike”. This “hit-and-run” thinking leads inevitably to the views that the most important feature of a trade is the entry, and that lost unrealised gains do not count. The latter is literally the case as most traders even if they conscientiously run a trading journal or trade log do not even measure lost unrealised gains. As if its not real money FFS…