Do you take profits early, or hold out regardless of price action?

Beginner Questions
22

Funny enough I forwarded tested this thought back a couple of years - I’m a business person since this past almost 50 years now - I’m hard wired to both look for and take profit - guys say that losses are a lesson - I say that profit is life blood.

Letting profit run IMO is a cousin of greed and again IMO greed is the downfall of some brilliant businesses.

It’s all down to the trader mindset - and everyone is different i suppose - but since we are on the beginner section - just a thought for learners - try it for a while on demo - forget the risk/reward ratios - play the game solely for profit and take profit when you feel comfortable - and most important - forget what happens after you have been paid :slight_smile:

23

In trading, nothing is so good it deserves to be taken at face value.

“Let your profits run” is a saying that could be as much as 150 years old and relates to a different time, and to trading stocks - though we possibly wouldn’t even recognise it as trading. It certainly pre-dates private retail forex trading.

If this is your tactic, it needs to be based on evidence and statistics from back-testing and observation.

24

@peterma

To me, letting your profits run is simply another way of saying use a trailing stop.

I thought all experienced traders would see that.

I hope your not suggesting that using trailing stops is a bad idea ?

25

Amen. Another quote I’ve read is, “no one ever went broke from taking profit” :+1:

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26

@JannaFX I see. Do you scalp as well? And the problem for me is I don’t know how to go about 2nd chances (meaning entering a 2nd time after being stopped out or stop profit hit).

27

I’ve also heard the opposite, if you take your trade off the table and make $4 but your goal was $15… and the next trade you take you lose $15, your overall profit is -$11 from those last two trades. You CAN go broke from taking profits, because you pull your position off the table early. I think in the heat of the moment you have to decide whether the move has been exhausted or if it’s just pulling back and will continue to go up, or will go against you completely. This is where I struggle.

28

What are you even saying?

29

So Johnscott you never pull your position off the table until it hits your trailing stop loss?

30

@amatias2026

Very rarely - I mostly let the market take me out of a trade.

There are occasions when Ive made 8-10 * my trade risk when I say the market has gone far enough.

But those times are rare maybe once or twice a year.

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31

Totally agree!

32

Welcome Tatyh.

Mostly when thinking about this thread and it’s title - imagine that we dropped the word ‘early’ - that word has no meaning when putting money into the bank - and if there is no money in the bank then we are losers.

Only the greedy look back at what might have been - the guys that make it look only to the future :slight_smile:

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33

That’s a good one. :slight_smile:

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