◆ In one paragraph
Profit is taken where the next pool of liquidity sits, not at a round number of R, because that pool is where the market is actually going. The working structure is to take a third to a half at the first pool — the near side of the range, the previous session's extreme — move the stop to entry, and trail the remainder under lower-timeframe swings toward the higher-timeframe draw on liquidity, exiting early only if a sweep of the target with displacement against you shows the pool has been taken. Everything else is a variation on that, and the numbers that decide which variation is right for you come from your own journal, not from a rule of thumb.
The first half gave the five strategies, the liquidity-target principle and a worked scale-out. This half deals with the decisions that come after the entry: how to rank the candidate targets on a chart that has several, what a runner's trailing stop should actually follow, how to handle the target that gets swept against you, what the maths says about partials versus all-out, how to exit on time rather than price when the setup has gone stale, and a set of exits from real trades that show each rule in action.
Ranking targets when the chart offers several
A long from a swept low usually has four or five candidate targets above it: the session high, the previous day's high, an old fair value gap, a cluster of equal highs, the top of the daily dealing range. They are not equal. Rank them by how much liquidity sits at each and how the market has treated it.
| Target type | Liquidity behind it | How price usually treats it | Use it as |
|---|
| Equal highs / lows (three or more touches) | Very high — stops from every trader who sold the level | Swept decisively, often with a wick beyond | The main target; take the bulk here or just before |
| Previous day's / week's extreme | High — a level every algorithm has | Swept, then a reaction | Second target on intraday trades; first on swing trades |
| Session high / low (Asian, London) | Moderate — intraday stops | Taken in the same session most days | First partial on intraday trades |
| Unfilled fair value gap or void | Moderate — resting limit orders, not stops | Filled to the midpoint or fully, then a reaction | A partial; the reaction is often sharp |
| Opposite order block | Depends on age; fresh blocks are strong | Reaction on the first touch | Final target on a reversal trade |
| Round number | Low on its own; only matters when it coincides with one of the above | Nothing reliable | Never, unless it sits on another target |
Pick the highest-ranked target inside the reach of the current move — a 15-minute setup in a London session is not going to reach the weekly high — and make that the main target. Everything before it is a partial. The liquidity pools mapping lesson is the drawing method behind this table.
What the trailing stop should follow
Most runners are killed by the trailing stop, not by the market. A stop that follows every 1-minute swing gets hit on the first pullback; a stop that follows the 4-hour swing gives back most of the move. The right rule is that the trail follows the swing on the timeframe one step above the entry chart, and it moves only after a new higher low (or lower high) has been confirmed by a break of the previous high (or low).
- Entered on the 5-minute → trail under confirmed 15-minute higher lows.
- Entered on the 15-minute → trail under confirmed 1-hour higher lows.
- Entered on the 1-hour → trail under confirmed 4-hour higher lows.
- The stop goes a few pips or ticks beyond the swing, not on it; the swing is where the stops are.
- The stop never moves backwards. If a swing forms further from price than the current stop, the stop stays.
Compare that with an ATR trail or a fixed-distance trail: those follow volatility, not structure, and the market does not care about volatility when it decides where to run the stops. A structure trail is hit when the trend has actually changed — a lower low on the next timeframe up — which is the exact moment you would want to be out anyway. The trailing stop guide has the mechanics for TradingView alerts.
When the target is swept against you
The target is a liquidity pool. Sometimes the market takes it, keeps going, and the runner is fine. Sometimes it takes it with a single wick, displaces back the other way, and the runner that was 3R in profit is now a break-even stop-out an hour later. That second case has a signature and an exit.
- The target is reached by a spike, not a grind. A single candle wicks through the level and closes back under it. That is a sweep of your target, and the buyers whose stops were above it are now the fuel for the reverse move.
- The next candle is displacement against you. Body twice the average, closing below the last swing on your entry timeframe.
- Exit the remainder at market on that close. Do not wait for the structure trail. The trail exists for a trend that is continuing; this trend just ended at the pool you were aiming at.
Most of the time you will have taken half or more at the pool already, so the decision is about the runner only. The advanced sweeps lesson covers reading the sweep candle; the rule here is simply that a sweep of your own target with displacement against you is an exit, not a pullback.
Partials versus all-out: what the maths says
Partials feel better and, on paper, they usually lower your expectancy slightly, because you are taking half of the position off at the lowest R of the trade. Whether they pay depends on one number: the proportion of your trades that reach the first target and then reverse before the second.
| Scenario (100 trades, 1R risk) | All-out at target 2 (3R) | 50% at target 1 (1.5R), 50% trailed to target 2 (3R) |
|---|
| Win rate to target 1: 60%; of those, 50% continue to target 2 | 30 × 3R − 70 × 1R = +20R | 30 × (0.75 + 1.5) + 30 × (0.75 + 0) − 40 × 1R = +50R |
| Win rate to target 1: 60%; of those, 80% continue | 48 × 3R − 52 × 1R = +92R | 48 × 2.25 + 12 × 0.75 − 40 = +77R |
| Win rate to target 1: 45%; of those, 50% continue | 22.5 × 3R − 77.5 = −10R | 22.5 × 2.25 + 22.5 × 0.75 − 55 = +12.5R |
Read the pattern. Partials win when a large share of trades reverse between the first and second target — which is exactly what happens in the sessions-and-sweeps method, because the first target is itself a pool that the market often reacts from. All-out wins when the trend is strong and most trades run. The honest answer is that a swing trader on daily setups in a trending market should lean toward all-out or a small partial, and an intraday trader should take a real partial at the first pool. Your journal will tell you which you are within sixty trades; the expectancy entry and the risk-reward calculator guide have the arithmetic.
Exiting on time, not price
A setup has a lifespan. A London sweep-and-displacement entry that has not reached its first target by the end of the London session is a trade whose reason has expired: the volume that made the setup has gone home. Holding it into the New York open because it is "still above the block" is holding a trade with no thesis.
- Intraday setups: close or trail to break-even at the end of the session that produced them. London trades are managed to 16:00 UTC; New York trades to 20:00 UTC.
- Daily setups: if the first target is not reached within three daily candles, the setup is stale. Move the stop to entry and let it resolve.
- Any setup: if price returns to the entry block a second time without having reached the first target, exit at break-even. Two tests of the block mean the block is being absorbed, not respected.
Time stops are the least popular exit because they feel like giving up. They are also the exit that removes the largest number of small losses from a journal, because a stale trade usually ends at the stop, not at the target.
Five exits from real trades
- The clean one. EUR/USD long from a London sweep at 1.0842, stop 1.0826 (16 pips). First pool: Asian high 1.0862, 1.25R, half off. Trail under 15-minute higher lows. Second pool: yesterday's high 1.0879, 2.3R, reached at 10:50; runner closed there because the level is a previous day's extreme and it was 15 minutes before London lunch. Blended 1.8R.
- The swept target. NQ long from 18,278, stop 18,224. First pool the Monday high 18,340, half off at 1.15R. Trail under 15-minute lows. Price spikes through the Friday high at 18,395 to 18,402 and closes at 18,388; next 15-minute candle drops 41 points and breaks the last 15-minute low. Runner closed at 18,352 on that close. Blended 1.3R instead of the 2.2R on the plan — and instead of the break-even it would have been an hour later.
- The time stop. GBP/USD short from 1.2718 at 08:25 UTC, target the previous day's low 1.2662. By 11:00 price is at 1.2698, 20 pips in profit, never reached the pool, London lunch has started. Stop moved to entry at 11:00; hit at 12:40. Zero R. The same trade held into New York would have been stopped at full loss at 13:50 when the New York Judas swing took the London high.
- The runner that ran. BTC long from 62,990 after a cascade ended at a daily block, stop 62,380. First pool the Monday high 64,700, 2.8R, half off. Trail under 1-hour higher lows. Second pool the weekly open 65,900. Thursday the weekly open is swept to 65,980 and a 15-minute bearish displacement follows; runner closed at 65,800. Blended 3.7R.
- The one that went straight to the stop. Gold long from a 15-minute block at 2,318, stop 2,312. Price never reached the first pool at 2,326; it traded through the block on the second test. Rule: exit at break-even on the second test. Break-even was not available — the second test came before price had moved into profit — so the stop was hit. Minus 1R, which is what the plan said it could cost.
Five trades, five different exits, one set of rules. None of the exits were a feeling. The trade management rules lesson puts these into a checklist you can keep next to the chart.
The playbook
- Before entry: rank the targets. Equal highs / lows and the previous day's or week's extreme are main targets; session extremes and gaps are partials; round numbers are nothing.
- At the first pool: take the partial and move the stop to entry. A third to a half on intraday trades; less on daily setups in a trending market.
- Trail under confirmed swings one timeframe above the entry chart. Never move the stop backwards; place it beyond the swing, not on it.
- If the target is swept with displacement against you, exit the runner on that close. A sweep of your own pool is the end of the move, not a pullback.
- If the session ends or the block is tested twice without reaching the first pool, exit on time. Stale trades end at the stop far more often than at the target.
Mistakes that cost the most
- Targeting 2R because 2R is a nice number, when the pool is at 1.6R or 3.1R.
- Trailing under 1-minute swings and being taken out on the first pullback of a 3R move.
- Holding the runner through a sweep of the target because "it might continue". Sometimes it does; the expectancy says exit.
- Taking 80% off at the first pool and calling the last 20% a runner. A runner that small cannot pay for the trades that reverse.
- Holding a London setup into New York without a London target being reached.
- Moving the stop to break-even the moment the trade is a few pips in profit, before the first pool. The first pullback takes it.
Key takeaway
Take profit where the liquidity is. Rank the pools, take a partial at the first one and move the stop to entry, trail the rest under confirmed swings one timeframe above the entry chart, and exit early only for a sweep of your own target with displacement against you or for a setup whose time has run out. Partials pay when many trades reverse at the first pool, all-out pays in strong trends, and the journal — not a rule of thumb — decides which describes your trading.