After trading for some time, I came to realize that a good entry strategy is not as important as a good exit strategy. Some of you may disagree with me but I believe if you are able to use a good exit strategy, you would not need any take profit or stop loss levels because the exit strategy will tell you when to exit for the maximum profit or minimum loss.

My purpose for opening this new thread is to gather good exit strategies. I will keep updating this post when I find good exit strategies. Please contribute if you have or read about any good exit strategies.

Devil2000 has given a good suggestion on how to measure exit strategies:
Exit efficiency = maximum possible difference in prices for this exit/profit potential. (A good number is 60% or more.)

for long trades ;
Exit efficiency = (ExitPrice - LowestPrice)/(HighestPrice - LowestPrice)

for short trades ;
Exit efficiency = (HighestPrice - ExitPrice)/(HighestPrice - LowestPrice)


To start off, shiningstar has provided some suggestions for exit strategies at http://www.forex-tsd.com/28988-post6.html

1. NonLagMA_v4
I am trying to use this one now. Still in the process of refining the Length and Filter and Timeframe. From my limited testing, the timeframe for NonLagMA may be different from the timeframe of the trading strategy.

2. LSMA: Rperiod=7
This is suggested by shiningstar. I just took a quick look and it looks good.

Hi
Fibo level and Camarilla level are good choice

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health & wealth , success & happiness

Care to provide more details on how to use Fibo level and Camarilla level for exits?

Try exiting with fibo levels at 61.8, 76.4, 127.2, 161.8, 261.8 and depending on market sentiment..

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Hi

I think its down to the mechanics of the trade. I am working on some ea's to just manage closing open trades. here are some ideas I am working on;

in all cases assume SL = TP.

case a
a1 - when profit = half SL then move to breakeven +1 pip
a2 - when profit = 1.5 * SL then move to TP set SL TS
a3 - exit when hit SL or TS

case b, TP2-TP1=SL, i.e. TP1=10, TP2=20, SL=10
b1 - when profit = TP2 , split 50% of trade
b2 - Move SL to TP1
b3 - for each pip the price moves up above TP1, move the SL up a pip
- for every 3 pips the prices moves below TP1, move the SL up a pip

case c,
c1 - when profit = 1.5*TP put SL at TP1
c2 - leave for X number of hours - if price is still higher close out

I think it would be great to have an ea running on the charts you are interested in that soul purpose is to close out the trades systematically.
Then during the day one could launch trades via a mobile phone and know that a the system will manage the trades. There are a handful of good entry systems here on the forum, - we could get these to send out email alerts when they say buy or sell and then look at the chart and decide whether to trade or not.
I would very much like to work with you developing and testing some closing stratergies.

Hi I got the first exit stratergy working - well not quite as set out above. It also takes a snap of the current chart when it exits and sends one an email.

One has to implement CG's emailing system to have it send mail - or knock the send mail off - I will put in an option to do this,

Otherwise I also will put in an option that if the order has the correct comment, but a real sl or tp then it won't work on it.

I will post notes how to use it soon.

Attached Files

	SystematicCloseA_v5b0.mq4 (18.4 KB, 146 views)
	SystematicCloseA_v5b2.mq4 (16.9 KB, 85 views)

Good exits are EASIER than good entries, if you switch off human psychology.
(An EA tries to switch off the human factor.)
The exit should not care about the entry price. If you realize your position is bad, then close it immediately, instead of mentally switching your short term deal into a longterm "investment".

If you have an EA A which usually gives you good long/short signals maybe average every 6 hours, then take other EAs B, C, ... which you consider maybe less reliable but still profitable, and which produce signals typically with the same frequency (not 10 times more often or 10 times more seldom).

As every EA, A has some effects not modelled (maybe A does not get the oil price as input), but C may respond to "oil effects". It means:
* When A created a LONG signal, then ENTER a LONG position.
* If later C creates a SHORT signal, then this means to go STAND-ASIDE.
So we do not wait until A finally brings a SHORT signal.

Summary: a mediocre short signal means "close the long position !".

Interesting idea - pls post 2 canditate ea's to proof your theory autopips.

Cardio, I cannot attach your SystematicClose EA on my chart. When I compiled it, I got this note: 2;76;C:\Program Files\MetaTrader - North Finance\experts\SystematicCloseA_v5b0.mq4;10:1;'gM ail.mqh' - cannot open program file.

I think your approach has a lot of merit and I would like to test your EA. Please let me know how I can make it work properly on my chart.

Thanks.

FXCruiser

Hi

The current one works as follows.

You need the attached mqh files in the correct directories. To do this please see

Help with Send Mail

This is a hassle and I plan to add the switch to disable sendmail - as sometimes the ea will have to be managing many open trades and getting many emails is no fun.

1 - Place the ea on a chart that you are trading
2 - If you want the ea to work with an order, put an order comment in with the following format, 'aXXXYYY', when you place an order.

In this format 'a' currently denotes nothing, but future versions of the EA will use the first character of the comment to determine the exit stratergy being used. The next 3 characters 'XXX' are the stoploss in pips that you are using - max being '999', or like '010' for 10 pip SL. The next 3 characters are your TP - max being '999' or like '008' for 8 pips take profit.

3 - Currently it is working like this
When profit = 0.5 * TP then it moves the SL to breakeven and creates a Trailing stop equal to half your TP. When the profit = 2 * TP, then it changes the trailing stop to trail at your TP.
i.e. If you enter the comment a010010, then when the trades profit equals 5pips , it will create a trailing stop of 5 pips, when the trades profit equals 20 pips it will change the trailing stop (TS) to 10 pips.

(I think this is a bit harsh to start with so the next version will only create a TS when it hits the TP.)

Hope this helps - please post any comments for improving - I have only tested using 'a010010' as a comment. And have another EA, that automatically opens trades and also takes a picture of the chart when it does it. I will post this one up soon as well - right now I am trying to understand 'Grid EAs'

Attached Files

SendMail.zip (5.5 KB, 96 views)