When to Exit a Profitable Trade?

[Dollar_McGavin]

@Ambrosia_Afterlife

Apart from trial and error and loads of backtesting, what are the general principles or rules of thumb about when to exit a profitable trade?

Yes, the rule of thumb is you exit the trade when the price chart signals a trend reversal.

@Ambrosia_Afterlife

I get this wrong again and again.

Exiting too early leads to loss of possible profit, and too late leads to winners becoming losers.

Is it normal or unusual that I seem to find judging this much harder than where to put the stop loss, and even much harder than when/how to move the stop loss?

It’s difficult for you because your exit decisions are based on the open profit/loss and your feelings of fear (of winner turning into a loser) and greed (not wanting to exit too early) instead of what the chart is telling you.

@Ambrosia_Afterlife

Is there a right answer? Or some clues, please?

Yes there is a right answer:

Ignore the open profit/loss and your feelings, focus on what the chart is telling you. The whole point of having a system, doing TA, using indicators, price action etc is to understand what the chart is telling you.