Brainteaser for the weekend. I used to think nailing the entry was paramount (both price and timing) and everything else was secondary. These days, however, exits play a bigger role. What say you?
%% BOTH, but for trading ; scale out exits, generally , as you noted . Adding some to winners can be wise ; +cutting average size when wrong[exits etc......] EVEN the SEC noted the importance of exits '' Paused Their Climate Change ''[ rule-scam] I would exit also ,[ in additions to my plans] if many business sued me, over something like that SEC scam rule SRN News + WSJ news
Traders spend half their life trying to find perfect entry signals only to find out years later that the exits are far more important. If you bottom tick a long for 20pts of profit & it runs up another 270pts the trade sucked.
That's assuming your trade is a winner. But if you constantly get in at the wrong place at a wrong time, no matter how great your exit strategy is, it will always be a loser. So in that regard, you need to get a good handle on your entry first IMO.
Exit determine if you make money or not. Not the entry... first logical target, second further away target, and third trailing stop exit combined with a tight stop has done more to the equity curve then any kind of entry that exists.
From a risk management perspective exits are very important, way more than entry. From an overall profit expectation perspective both entries and exits are very important. So exits are important from 2 angles, but entires from only one.
Winners and losers are determined when you close a position, "at the exit". You haven't win or lose until you close a position, "at the exit". IMO, too much emphasis is put on the entries. With the same entry, most of the time you can have either a win or a lost, depending on the exit.
Definitely the entry, because you can't win if you don't bet! Definitely the exit, because you can't bet if you don't have any chips! In both cases, risk management is The Answer......
Most traders with very high win rates make small profits & have large loses. Traders with very low win rates can make large profits & have small loses.