Partial close
Close part of the position in profit and run the rest. It calms you down, but it lowers the average result.
Partial close — what it is?
A partial close means closing part of the position at the first target and moving the stop-loss to breakeven on the remainder.
The technique reduces not risk but the spread of outcomes: fewer large wins, but also fewer trades that come back from profit into loss.
The price you pay is expectancy. If you take half off at 1:1, the system's average result falls — which is why the technique needs a calculation, not a feeling.
Partial close — how it is built?
A sensible scheme: the first portion at the nearest liquidity, the remainder to the main target, and the stop-loss to breakeven only after the first target has been reached. The scheme is fixed in the trading plan in advance and does not change mid-trade.
Partial close — common mistakes
Closing part of the position out of anxiety rather than by plan.
Moving the stop to breakeven right after entry: that is a guaranteed knock-out on the very first pullback.
Changing the partial-close scheme from trade to trade.
Treating a partial close as a way to fix a bad entry.
Related to
Glossary
- close
- the last price of the period. Considered the most important of the four: breakouts are confirmed by the close.
- position
- an open trade.
- stop-loss
- an exit level set in advance for a losing trade.
- breakeven
- moving the stop to the entry price, after which the trade can no longer end in a loss.
- spread
- the difference between bid and ask. Your cost of entering a trade.
- Expectancy
- the average result of one trade given the win rate and the average size of a win and a loss. The main measure of a strategy.