You may want to take price off the screen and just use other variables and indicators. If you do this, one truism comes up fairly soon: An entry and an exit have the same charactristics. Only one other factor comes into play: The right side of the market for holding to make a segemnt of profits has changed. Thus the market on every bar is telling you to hold. But at the end or within a bar a signal to switch sides can occur. In coarse trading, it is easy to see that channels overlap. So do traverses and so do tapes as shown on medium and fine levels of trading. If a person is just casual and not freaked out while trading, he may see that there is always a lot of time to switch from one side of the market to the other AND even if you are not looking at price. Here is a traverse switching from one mode to another (modes are the direction of the market for being on the right side) In these five bars there are 19 status of the market information elements. Four signals are there too, but none apply to coarse trading and you hold through. For traverse trading, you would do a turn from one side of the market to another. You do not need to look at price to see an exit is the same as the next entry.
I write reversal systems. In this case entry and exits are equal and the third factor timing is decisive.
I come from the school where entries and exits don't matter as much as the money management as long as you short beyond resistance and buy below support. Nexen
Bad entry - good exit you make money Good entry - good exit you make money Bad entry - bad exit you loose money Good entry - bad exit you loose money Entry - exit equally important but Master the exit , Master the Trading.
Manage and enter your trades with specific criteria... this is the only way to effectively manage risk. "Confident exits"... get out when you want your money. No use in wasting time trying to get an extra tick or two
Entires are no more difficult than ordering a pizza. Exits are where your money is made (and tax liability incurred).
What is more important in your system development? The answer really depends on what stage you're at in trading. For example, most beginners will concentrate on the entries. In contrast, most veteran traders will concentrate mainly on exits or trade management after entry. Yet, when market conditions change (it's always changing multiple times each year)... Most beginners will think there's something wrong with their entry signal and will start tweaking it (making changes) or switch to another entry signal that seems fashionable. In contrast, veteran traders will tend to make changes in their trade management (money management, position size management, duration of trading et cetera). Regardless, all traders recognize their entries and exits are important. However, depending upon where your at in your trading... One will obviously have more importance than the other. Yet, entries will always be the seductress at forum discussions which is why there's more threads at EliteTrader.com about entries than threads about how to manage trades after entries. It's so much easier for traders to talk about entries than exits and that in itself gives the illusion to many that entries are more important than exits. As for myself, I'm at the point now where I spend most of my efforts on the trade management after entry. M.A. Perry
Long entry means exit short (and go long). Short entry means exit long (and go short). Six or one half dozen.