Setting a Target Profit is an inalienable part of every individual's trading strategy, and each trader has his own plan and tactic of integrating a Target Profit into his or her trading style. While there are different ways and types of setting up a Target Profit, we are gonna go through four common and most well-known ones.
1. Key zones
Setting a TP at a crucial zone of support or resistance is a strategy used mainly by swing traders. If the market is ranging, buying a security at the lower barrier of the rectangular box and aiming for the upper barrier of it and vice versa is commonly implemented in the market by middle or long-term speculators.
2. Risk-to-reward
This technique is mostly utilised by day traders and it implies setting a fixed risk-to-reward ratio for every trade and use the "set and forget" logic. On the illustration on the top right graph, it can be inferred that even thought the price has more potential to drop to the downside, a fixed RR of 1:3 has been set.
3. Logic and intuition
The more you trade, the more experience you gain. After some time on the markets, you will easily spot some patterns and price movements in advance, without being in need to have more confluences than usual. On the 3rd chart, we can observe that the price is forming a "Triple Bottom" pattern on the 50% Fibonacci retracement level. Our intuition tells us that after some consolidations, an impulsive move should take place, and there is a high possibility for the price to keep rising and reach the zone of the Higher High illustrated on the graph.
4. Open Target
Lastly, there is a group of traders that prefers having an open Target Profit and letting their trades run for weeks or even months. This tactic is commonly used by position traders, where they set a Stop Loss, but leave their Target Profit open, making it possible for them to hold a transaction open for long periods of time.
1. Key zones
Setting a TP at a crucial zone of support or resistance is a strategy used mainly by swing traders. If the market is ranging, buying a security at the lower barrier of the rectangular box and aiming for the upper barrier of it and vice versa is commonly implemented in the market by middle or long-term speculators.
2. Risk-to-reward
This technique is mostly utilised by day traders and it implies setting a fixed risk-to-reward ratio for every trade and use the "set and forget" logic. On the illustration on the top right graph, it can be inferred that even thought the price has more potential to drop to the downside, a fixed RR of 1:3 has been set.
3. Logic and intuition
The more you trade, the more experience you gain. After some time on the markets, you will easily spot some patterns and price movements in advance, without being in need to have more confluences than usual. On the 3rd chart, we can observe that the price is forming a "Triple Bottom" pattern on the 50% Fibonacci retracement level. Our intuition tells us that after some consolidations, an impulsive move should take place, and there is a high possibility for the price to keep rising and reach the zone of the Higher High illustrated on the graph.
4. Open Target
Lastly, there is a group of traders that prefers having an open Target Profit and letting their trades run for weeks or even months. This tactic is commonly used by position traders, where they set a Stop Loss, but leave their Target Profit open, making it possible for them to hold a transaction open for long periods of time.