agreed something else that is worth considering is that investors / financial backers will often put a higher premium on consistency (assuming positive results) than maximised returns. this is similar to a "novice" trader as they are often not prepared for fluctuations in their accounts people i talk to would rather see returns of +0.5% every week consistenly than flat or -1% most weeks with the occasional +10% result, even if this second scenario generates much higher returns in the long run. [all these figs are example obviously]
first of all, my "risk/reward" (this is a problematic term, but that's another story) is based on setup structure, for each setup (i trade index futures, mostly YM) you can;t force a setup into an artificial risk/reward structure. iow, some setups i risk 3 times my reward (first target. and yes, i scale out). on others, my target is larger than my stop (but these are uncommon) etc. i have no problem with a stop of 12, and a target of 5,9 and discretionary on third portion, if i KNOW (and I do) that the trade meets my first target before my stop 88% of the time, and then i move stop to entry, etc. i could not care less about whether people think scaling out is "mediocre" it is also not necessarily suboptimal on absolute basis. depends on the setups and probabilities regardless, i trade futures for INCOME (not capital appreciation, like my investment accounts), so smooth, consistent income is important i very rarely have losing days in my futures scalping account, and that's because I have designed it that way, to use setups with high probability, etc. to make relatively small targets also, the NATURE of index futures is that they are usually rotating around value, not "trending" and thus this sort of strategy has better positive expectancy, at least for me and my methodology
I think to try and put a one fits all on this is to simple. Many factors to consider. Ones trading style, is this a trend trade or agaisnt trend scalp, ones mental makeup. Very difficult to just come out and say my shoes should fit all of you