How Important is an Exit Strategy?

There is a saying: “cut your losses and let your winners run.”  I know that is not what some people teach, they say when you get some profit you should bank some of the profit and move your stop loss to a break even.  That way you will not take a loss on the trade.  They are saying that when the market is moving in your direction, to get out before you lose-just take a little bit of the profit on the trade.  I have often wondered what their exit signals are if they are willing to close part of a trade and see what the rest is going to do. That seems like gambling to me.  (Lets see what happens.)  This tells me that they do not have a good exit strategy.

I think you should start out small like trading only one lot to start with. When you see add on signals you should add on 2, 3, 4  or more lots once the trend is truly telling you which way the market is going.  If they have a good exit strategy why are they only closing a portion of the position?  I say why not close the whole trade if the market looks like it is going to turn on you.  If the market retraces a little, and takes off again, you can get back into the trend.

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