{"id":"2054545181542662513","url":"https://x.com/KoroushAK/status/2054545181542662513","text":"","author":{"name":"Koroush AK","username":"KoroushAK","avatarUrl":"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1924529819707949056/aGmvqmsM_200x200.jpg"},"createdAt":"Wed May 13 12:51:57 +0000 2026","engagement":{"replies":17,"retweets":45,"likes":230,"views":138057},"article":{"title":"My Trade Exit Strategies","previewText":"I’ve traded for 9 years and this is everything I know about trade exits.\nMy 6 best strategies with real trade examples.\nLet's begin:\nRule 1: Cut trades at FTA\nRule 2: Establish a time-based stop loss","coverImageUrl":"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIZDePBWYAAL0sm.jpg","content":"I’ve traded for 9 years and this is everything I know about trade exits.\n\nMy 6 best strategies with real trade examples.\n\nLet's begin:\n\n- Rule 1: Cut trades at FTA\n\n- Rule 2: Establish a time-based stop loss\n\n- Rule 3: Cut based on volume trends\n\n- Rule 4: The 0.9R Rule\n\n- Rule 5: Using the orderbook to extend TP\n\n- Rule 6: Establish patterns for extending TP\n\nThis is detailed and requires focus. So if you’re busy right now, bookmark and come back later.\n\nLet’s begin.\n\n# The 3 traps of ‘set and forget’\n\nMost traders run a ‘set and forget’ process without any trade management. Something like this:\n\n1. Enter the trade (set)\n\n1. Wait to see if it’s a winner or loser (forget)\n\nWhat they don’t know is that this approach leads to 3 traps… traps where even a trader with real edge can still lose money.\n\n## Trap 1: Winning Trade -> Loser.\n\nYou’ve just entered a trade. You’re feeling confident as the price travels 90% to your target. Then, out of nowhere, the price reverses and goes all the way down to your full stop loss.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEdh-PX0AAsisF.jpg)\n\nYou’ve fallen into a trap that turned a winning trade into a loser.\n\n## Trap 2: Leaving Money on the Table.\n\nIn this next scenario, you take a trade, and it steamrolls all the way to your target. You feel great and exit at the target. Later, you return to your computer only to see that the price has continued to rise by a further 20% past your target.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEd9roWQAAAE2_.jpg)\n\nIn this trap, you caught a winning trade, but the market was offering more than you captured.\n\n## Trap 3: Full Hit On Losing Trades. \n\nFinal trap now.\n\nYou’ve just entered a trade, and you regret it almost immediately. Goes completely against you. So you sit there, miserable and watch it go directly to your stop loss.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEhxodWIAAbezg.jpg)\n\nIn this trade, despite clear warning signs, you lose the maximum amount.\n\n## My 6 trade management rules teach you how to avoid these traps.\n\nI will teach you:\n\n- Mechanical rules (binary and triggered by defined conditions). Even beginners can use them immediately.\n\n- Discretionary rules (require you to look for subjective patterns in the charts). This comes with market experience, so I suggest it for more intermediate traders.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEiBdWXIAAHte-.png)\n\nA few things to know about the article: \n\nThe examples I’ll use are based on:\n\n- Breakout trades (easier to understand visually)\n\n- Altcoins on the 1-minute timeframe (where beginners can gather quick feedback)\n\n- 1R targets (good risk management before a proven statistical edge)\n\nBut you can take these frameworks and apply them across strategies and timeframes.\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Most traders run a ‘set and forget’ process without any trade management.\n\n- What they don’t know is that this approach leads to 3 traps.\n\n- Trap 1: Winning Trade -> Loser.\n\n- Trap 2: Leaving Money on the table.\n\n- Trap 3: Full Hit On Losing Trades.\n\n- My 6 trade management rules avoid these traps. Each rule falls into the bracket of mechanical (triggered by defined conditions) or discretionary (subjective patterns in the charts).\n\n# Rule 1: Cut trades at FTA (Invalidating losing trades quickly)\n\nThis first rule is mechanical and targets ‘Trap 3: Full Hit On Losing Trades’.\n\n## Overview:\n\nIf after you jump into a position:\n\n- Price barely goes onside (in profit)\n\n- Closes through the FTA (first trouble area, which is a level on the way to the stoploss)\n\n- Cut the trade with a -0.5R loss (rather than a full -1R)\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEiVS3XAAAzOTi.jpg)\n\nFTA stands for first trouble area, and I define it as the price level located 0.5 times your risk distance. So on a 1R trade, this would be -0.5R.\n\nThe idea is that if you enter a trade and the price goes straight to -0.5R, you cut the trade.\n\nNOTE: you want the candle to close beyond that level, rather than to wick through it.\n\nWhy 0.5R specifically?\n\nOver a significant sample size, my team determined that cutting at 0.5R offside on a candle close is an expected value positive (EV+) rule. That said, you don’t need to take this on faith. My free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf) includes a ‘trade cut’ section for you to track this across your own data.\n\n## Bonus: Free Trading Journal\n\nThis Journal Review step is where most traders fall off: they have nowhere to track their data. I built a free journal so you do. It covers all 6 trade management rules, but this is where you’ll feel it first.\n\nDownload it 👉[ click her](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf)e.\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 1: Cut trades at FTA (Invalidating losing trades quickly)\n\n- This first rule is mechanical and targets ‘Trap 3: Full Hit On Losing Trades’.\n\n- If after you jump into a position:\n\n- Price barely goes onside (in profit)\n\n- Closes through the FTA (first trouble area, which is a level on the way to the stoploss)\n\n- Cut the trade to take a -0.5R loss rather than a full 1R\n\n- My free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf) helps you track the performance of this trade cut rule.\n\n# Rule 2: Establish a time-based stop loss (At what point in time do your trades become EV-)\n\nThis second rule is also a mechanical one and targets ‘Trap 3: Full Hit On Losing Trades’.\n\nThe FTA rule catches trades that move against you in price. But some trades don’t fall into that pattern. They enter a limbo zone: not hitting your stop, not approaching your target, just sitting there.\n\nEstablishing a time-based stop loss frees up your capital, attention, and emotional energy.\n\n## Overview:\n\n- Step 1: Track your trade duration and whether your trade was a winner or a loser (can use my free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf))\n\n- Step 2: Run a simple formula to generate your average winner duration\n\n- Step 3: Multiply this number by 2\n\n- Step 4: This becomes your time-based stop loss rule to cut your trades\n\n## Step 1: Track your entry and exit time, trade duration, and whether your trade was a winner or a loser\n\nIf you’re using my free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf), you already have all these features.\n\n## Step 2: Solve for your average winner duration\n\nIf you’re using my free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf), just drop this formula on the trading log tab:\n\n‘=AVERAGEIF(W6:W1000,\"W\",Z6:Z1000)*60’\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEjkdtWMAAV5L3.jpg)\n\n## Step 3: Multiply this number by 2\n\nSimply multiply this number by 2 to get your time-based stop loss.\n\n18 minutes x 2 = 36 minutes\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEjxXeXsAEnwI_.jpg)\n\n## Step 4: This becomes your time-based stop loss rule to cut your trades\n\nIn this example, the student's average winner is 18 minutes. So if they find themselves in a trade that lasts 36 minutes, it’s unlikely to be a winner.\n\nTLDR: if you are stuck in a trade for roughly 2 times the average winning trade duration -> cut the trade.\n\nWhy multiply by 2?\n\nLooking at 10,000+ of my own trades and those of my students, this is the point I’ve found where trades tend to be EV-. Again, test it yourself and see.\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 2: Establish a time-based stop loss (at what point in time do your trades become EV-)\n\n- Step 1: Track your trade duration and whether your trade was a winner or a loser (can use my free [journal](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf))\n\n- Step 2: Run a simple formula to generate your average winner duration.\n\n- Step 3: Multiply this number by 2\n\n- Step 4: This becomes your time-based stop loss rule to cut your trades\n\n- Test it for yourself to confirm against your data.\n\n## Rule 3: Cut based on volume trends (When is participation changing)\n\nAnd now we introduce our first discretionary rule. It’s targeted at:\n\n- ‘Trap 2 -> Leaving Money on the Table’\n\n- And also ‘Trap 3  -> Full Hit on Losing Trades’\n\nBut takes a more pattern-based or visual approach. Better for traders with more experience.\n\n## Overview:\n\n- Enter breakout trade (grinding price action + volume increasing into the level)\n\n- Watch out for the warning sign: volume suddenly drops off after your entry\n\n- Consider cutting the trade\n\nBefore you get into a breakout trade, grinding price action with steadily increasing volume is the strongest continuation signal.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEkJuiXwAAkM59.jpg)\n\nGrinding price action with volume that suddenly drops off after your entry is a warning sign, even if the price still looks clean.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEkXK4XcAAa7do.jpg)\n\nVolume tapering tells you that participation is drying up, and moves without participation tend to stall or reverse.\n\nBottom line -> On your breakout trades, if you enter a long on resistance only to find that the price is stalling and volume drops off, you can decide to cut the trade early.\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 3: Cut based on volume trends (When is participation changing)\n\n- Enter breakout trade (grinding price action + volume increasing into the level)\n\n- Watch out for the warning sign: volume suddenly drops off after your entry\n\n- Consider cutting the trade\n\n- This rule is discretionary rather than mechanical; use it carefully if you don’t have a proven statistical edge\n\n# Rule 4: The 0.9R Rule (Understanding Evolving R)\n\nWell done for making it this far. I suspect 80% of people gave up somewhere around rule 2… stay locked in for the final stretch.\n\nThe fourth rule is a mechanical rule targeting ‘Trap 1: Winning Trade -> Loser’\n\n## Overview:\n\n- Evolving R explains how your risk: reward ratio in a trade is not static\n\n- Another way to think about this is through the ‘Grab the Mouse’ test:\n\n- As price moves in your favour, the reward shrinks and the risk grows.\n\n- As price moves against you, the reward grows, and the risk shrinks.\n\n- On that basis, a sensible rule for 1R trades is: when the price reaches +0.9R in your favour, move your stop to +0.1R in your favour\n\n## The ‘Grab The Mouse’ Test\n\nYou’ve entered a trade.\n\nYou’re on the 1-minute timeframe, and about 20 minutes have passed.\n\nSomeone is standing behind you… They reach over, grab your mouse and close your position!\n\nWhat do you do now?\n\nDo you frantically re-enter the exact same trade (with the same stop and target), or do you decide you wouldn’t want to take this trade anymore?\n\nFor example, in the below trade, at entry, you were sitting on a 1:1 trade. Risk -1R for +1R reward.\n\nBut by the time the price travels +0.9R, your situation has changed. If you run the ‘grab the mouse’ test, would you really risk -1.9R just to gain +0.1R? That’s a 19:1 risk-to-reward ratio.\n\nIn technical terms, this is defined as Evolving R, where R stands for risk-to-reward ratio.\n\n- As price moves in your favour, the reward shrinks and the risk grows.\n\n- As price moves against you, the reward grows, and the risk shrinks.\n\nSo, what’s the solution? I have a mechanical trade cut rule for you:\n\nWhen the price reaches +0.9R in your favour, move your stop to +0.1R in your favour (approximately breakeven after fees and slippage). This eliminates the scenario where a trade reaches 90% of your target and then reverses all the way to your full stop loss.\n\nExample:\n\nYou can set this up visually using the Fibonacci tool on your charting platform. Demonstrated below:\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 4: The 0.9R Rule (Understanding Evolving R)\n\n- Evolving R explains how your risk: reward ratio is evolving in a trade rather than being static\n\n- Another way to think about this is through the ‘Grab the Mouse’ test:\n\n- As price moves in your favour, the reward shrinks and the risk grows.\n\n- As price moves against you, the reward grows, and the risk shrinks.\n\n- On that basis, a sensible rule is: when the price reaches +0.9R in your favour, move your stop to +0.1R in your favour\n\n# Rule 5: Using the Orderbook to Extend TP (Understanding liquidity to allow winners to run more)\n\nThis next rule is perhaps the most discretionary and advanced one.\n\nIt targets ‘Trap 2: Leaving Money on the table’ by leveraging one of my favourite profit maximisation tools -> the orderbook.\n\n## Overview:\n\n- For breakout trades, when we understand liquidity, we can allow winners to run more\n\n- These can be visualised on Bookmap by:\n\n- Clusters of green volume bubbles stacking in the direction of the move\n\n- Limit orders trailing behind price, building support as it moves\n\n- Thin order book ahead of price, with few resting limit orders blocking the way\n\n- Increasing volume over time, confirming growing participation\n\nOrderflow is the study of price movement in trading markets.\n\nThe orderbook itself is a live list of all limit orders waiting to be filled at different price levels. Passive limit sells sit above the price, and passive limit buys sit below. Price moves from one stack of limit orders to the next (not off lines you draw on a chart).\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEmP2WXAAEhYWp.png)\n\nSome of those stacks are thick: lots of orders, lots of resistance.\n\nSome are thin: barely anything there, easy for the price to slice through.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEmZhIXwAEiSkM.jpg)\n\nBookmap is a powerful tool to help visualise the orderbook on your charts.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEmiXBXIAAvwVs.jpg)\n\nIt shows you three things at once:\n\n1. Volume bubbles. Green bubbles are aggressive market buy orders, red bubbles are aggressive market sell orders. A bigger bubble means a bigger order.\n\n1. Heat map. Shows resting limit orders by colour. Dark/black means thin, very few orders. As it moves toward blue, yellow, orange and red, the book gets progressively thicker with more orders stacked. Anything above current price = limit sell orders. Anything below = limit buy orders.\n\n1. Current order book depth (right side panel).\n\nThe 4 orderbook signals to extend take profit:\n\n1. Clusters of green volume bubbles stacking in the direction of the move\n\n1. Limit orders trailing behind price, building support as it moves\n\n1. Thin order book ahead of price: dark/blue colours, few horizontal lines blocking the way\n\n1. Increasing volume over time, confirming growing participation\n\nExample trade below:\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEmoWlXAAEP-vC.jpg)\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 5: Using Orderbook to Extend TP (Understanding liquidity to allow winners to run more)\n\n- Orderflow is the study of price movement in trading markets.\n\n- The orderbook itself is a live list of all limit orders waiting to be filled at different price levels.\n\n- The 4 orderbook signals to extend take profit:\n\n- Clusters of green volume bubbles stacking in the direction of the move\n\n- Limit orders trailing behind price, building support as it moves\n\n- Thin order book ahead of price: dark/blue colours, few horizontal lines blocking the way\n\n- Increasing volume over time, confirming growing participation\n\n# Rule 6: Establish patterns for extending TP (High quality setup, onside right away, grinding to TP)\n\nThe last discretionary rule also targets ‘Trap 2: Leaving Money on the table’\n\nOverview:\n\n- There are 3 key patterns for extending TP\n\n- Pattern 1 -> Onside right away\n\n- Pattern 2 -> Grinding to TP\n\n- Pattern 3 -> High-quality setup\n\n- For breakout trades, a high-quality setup is determined by 4 key variables: slow grindy staircase, clearly increasing volume, minimal MA crossovers and clean trending price action on the Left Hand Side.\n\nWhen 3 patterns align in a breakout trade, you can discretionarily extend your take profit. Example below:\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEm5VoWEAAT8is.jpg)\n\nPattern 1: this trade was onside right away.  Meaning, it went straight into profit or the ‘green’,\n\nPattern 2: there was a clean grind to TP. In other words, there was minimal criss-crossing or reverting to entry-level. It consistently moved towards the target. \n\nPattern 3: it was a high-quality setup. This can be determined by the presence of 4 variables that I’ve summarised below in a cheat sheet.\n\n![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIEnAUnWgAEYy0W.png)\n\n## Lesson Summary\n\n- Rule 6: Establish patterns for extending TP (High quality setup, onside right away, grinding to TP).\n\n- There are 3 key patterns for extending TP.\n\n- Pattern 1 -> On side right away.\n\n- Pattern 2 -> Grinding to TP.\n\n- Pattern 3 -> High-quality setup as identified by: slow grindy staircase, clearly increasing volume, minimal MA crossover and clean trending LHS.\n\n# Bonus: Get Your Free Trading Journal\n\nYou've read the full masterclass.\n\nBut these rules really compound when you track them. That's what the [journal ](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf)is for, and you can grab mine free.\n\nIt's built to run alongside the six rules you just read:\n\n- Rule 1 (Cut at FTA): log every -0.5R cut in the Reason for Cutting column so you can prove the rule is EV+ on your data.\n\n- Rule 2 (Time-based stop): track entry time, exit time, and duration, then run the AVERAGEIF formula to generate your personal time stop.\n\n- Rule 3 (Volume cuts): tag discretionary volume cuts to confirm you're catching reversals, not flinching out of winners.\n\n- Rule 4 (0.9R rule): note when stops moved to +0.1R and what followed, so you know the rule preserves expectancy.\n\n- Rule 5 (Orderbook extensions): capture which of the 4 signals were present and the extra R captured beyond 1R.\n\n- Rule 6 (Pattern extensions): tag trades hitting all 3 patterns and compare R captured vs your 1R baseline.\n\n👉[ Click here to downloa](https://go.koroushak.io/trade_management_pdf)d\n\n# Further Education\n\n## Orderflow Masterclass\n\n## My Breakout Strategy\n\n## Risk Management Framework"}}