[Soultrader]

Here is my input. I have tried both exits techniques of all-out and scaling out. I have been scaling out the majority of the time but now have chosen to go all-out.

Let's say you have a profit target of 30 YM points a day. I would scale out half at +10, quarter at +20, and last quarter discretionary. Let's say you use a 10 point stop per trade.

First trade is a winner: +10 on half, +20 on quarter, and +30 on final quarter.

This averages out to 17.5 YM points on the entire position.

Now the second trader is a loser: -10 pts on full position.

The net here is +7.5 YM points. Even though you had a 30pt trade with only one losing trade of 10 points, youre net is 7.5pts. For me this led to more trades or even sticking around until the close to capture my daily target.

I have started using 15-20pt stops on a slightly higher timeframe to capture at least 20-30pts on half. (depends on the trade and market condition) Now all I really needed was 1-2 good setups a day. I rely heavily on tape making my trades extremely short term. Now, I am focusing more on candles or simply moving stop to break even to let trades ride.

With scaling out, the homerun trades will not offer optimal net profit. But can limit your losses with alot of scratch trades or -5pt trades. I personally do not aim for homerun trades.. if they happen great. But I think its really based on your daily goals, position sizes, risk tolerance. If your daily goal is $2,000 and trading 20 dow contracts, all you need is 20 points. If you are trading 10 contracts with a $2,000 daily goal then you will need 40 points. I prefer to use points as a daily goal instead of monetary gains. Account size, position size, style of trading, etc... needs to be incorporated in order to find what is optimal for you.