That's pretty much it. 3 birds with 1 stone; realize profits, maintain a position, and defend your account when price is moving against your view.
I disagree with the trendline option, that's just too slow, you give back too many profits. Much better to exit at the first sign of momentum loss, remember that you can always get back in, even if it's a worse price, trick is not to get all the move, trick is protect capital and unrealized profits. Can't give too much back, learn to re-enter on resumption of strength.
they generally take profit too early and hold losers too long lol. I would use some sort of vol gauge for both stops and tp's... previous s/r levels for targets in that zone, etc.
Yes just back tested a few of my older trades from early March and some from last month, I guess i will have to change my hold strategy to a shorter time frame and lock in profits earlier then i would have a few months ago given current market conditions From March till May the NZX was still continuing on from the previous years bull market. From May till now we have seen a relative "pull back" which in my case has led to alot more volitality. You still get the inevitable "break out" but instead of a steady rise like preivous months , i am now seeing sharp sell offs, with some cases followed by a sharp pull back , some times not.
Using the FPH chart i uploaded before what would you consider a momentum loss? Do you mean a volume fade, price range tightening? Please explain
Whether the "trendline option" is too slow or not depends on how one draws the trendline. In the case of the OP's first chart, he would have stayed in longer if he'd waited for a trendline break, more or less concurrent with momentum loss. The problem with exiting "at the first sign of momentum loss" is that such a loss may be nothing more than a pause before continuation. If the trendline is not broken, there's no reason to exit.
That's why you must polish your skills in re-entry. Trendlines can fake a break, their break could be misleading, not very reliable at all, unless, you have practiced and mastered ways to re-enter which is similar to what I've been defending.
Posters with multiple entries are always problematic. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=275960&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 As I said, this old and failed method of trend-following now turned to short term position trading by the OP does not work. One may cherry pick examples that work but on a larger picture it is a failure. Everyone who got sucked into this method is looking for the proper exit. There is no such a thing as a proper exit. Nobody knows when is the best time to exit. If a trading method does not provide a definite exit procedure then it is a sucker's game.
Thanks for the feedback bashatrader, as a new trader i appreciate your opinion. Im still very new , and your post has given me alot to think about. Thanks again