For a long time, I thought the hardest part of trading was finding the right entry.
Finding the right asset. Waiting for the right signal. Entering at the right time.
And naturally, whenever a trade didn't deliver the result I expected, I always came back to the same question:
Was my entry wrong?
Over time, and especially through all the testing I've been doing since July, I started looking at the problem differently.
What if the entry isn't always the problem?
What if a big part of the result simply comes down to the exit?
This is probably one of the areas where my approach has changed the most over the past few months.
A Good Entry Guarantees Absolutely Nothing
You can enter an asset at exactly the right moment, watch the price move in the direction you expected... and still end up with a mediocre result.
Why?
Because between "I was right about the direction" and "I actually made money", there's still one crucial step:
Getting out.
And that's where things become much more complicated.
Imagine an asset gains 20% after my entry.
On paper, that's excellent.
But if I decide to wait because I think it can go to +30%, then +40%, and it eventually pulls back until I'm only up 5%, my original analysis may have been perfectly correct.
My problem wasn't the entry.
It was the exit.
On the other hand, if I systematically take profits at +3% while the moves I'm catching regularly reach +15% or +20%, I have another problem.
I'm getting out too early.
In both cases, looking for a better entry strategy solves nothing.
The Trap of Trying to Catch the Perfect Top
There's something incredibly tempting when a trade is working:
Trying to sell at the top.
The problem is that you only know a top was the top after it's already happened.
While the price is climbing, it can always go higher.
+10%.
Why sell? It could reach +15%.
+15%.
Why sell? Maybe it'll hit +25%.
Then the market takes a breather.
+12%.
You tell yourself it'll bounce again.
+8%.
You still don't want to sell because just a few moments or hours ago, you were sitting at +15%.
And gradually, you stop managing the position based on what the market is doing now.
Instead, you're managing it based on the maximum unrealized profit you saw earlier.
That's something I've had to learn to control.
So I'm no longer obsessed with selling at the best possible price.
I'm trying to exit properly from a move I successfully captured.
It sounds like a small difference.
In practice, it completely changes the way you trade.
This Is Where ATR Becomes Interesting to Me
For my exits, one of the things I use in my system is ATR.
ATR stands for Average True Range.
The indicator isn't trying to predict whether the price will go up or down. It essentially measures an asset's recent volatility.
And that's exactly what interests me.
A fixed 2% stop or exit, for example, doesn't necessarily mean the same thing on two different cryptocurrencies.
One asset might naturally swing several percent without its underlying trend actually changing.
For another asset, the exact same move could be much more significant.
ATR therefore allows the exit to adapt more closely to what the market is actually doing.
My Smart Scan uses this information, among other things, to identify potential exit zones.
I don't treat those levels as absolute truth.
They're reference points.
And that's exactly what I needed: a rule that stops me from mentally moving my target just because the price keeps going up.
The Real Enemy: Changing the Rules During the Trade
This is probably one of the most dangerous things I've noticed in my own trading.
Before the trade, everything looks clear.
I have an entry.
I have an idea of where I want to exit.
I know why I'm taking the position.
Then the price starts moving.
And suddenly, every rule becomes negotiable.
The Take Profit looks too close.
The stop looks too close.
You see one green candle and you're already imagining the next one.
And then another.
It's incredibly easy to gradually turn a strategy into improvisation.
The problem with improvisation isn't only that it can produce a loss.
It can also produce a massive win.
And that's probably even worse.
Because bad behavior rewarded with an 80% gain can make you want to repeat it.
Even though the outcome may simply have been exceptionally lucky.
A Huge Winning Trade Isn't Necessarily a Good Trade
I've recently had some very strong results on a few assets.
Of course I'm happy when that happens.
But I'm starting to look at those results differently.
A +50%, +80%, or even larger move is great.
But that's not necessarily what I'm trying to reproduce.
What I want to reproduce is the process that got me into that move in the first place.
Because the next move might only be 12%.
The one after that might be 8%.
Then 20%.
That's fine.
If my system allows me to consistently capture part of those moves while keeping my losses under control, I have something far more interesting than one spectacular winning trade.
I have something I can repeat.
This Is Probably What I've Been Looking for All Along
Since July, my tests have gradually led me toward a fairly simple conclusion.
I don't need to constantly search for a new strategy.
I need to stabilize the one I already have.
I'm becoming comfortable with my entries.
I'm also becoming more comfortable with the way I select opportunities.
I've learned to wait more instead of chasing every move.
Now, a large part of my work is focused on exits.
When should I take part of the move?
When should I give the price room to breathe?
When should I accept that the move is over?
When should I exit without caring if the price goes another 10% higher afterward?
It's less exciting than searching for the next magic indicator.
But it's probably much more important.
Trading Changes When You Stop Looking for the Perfect Trade
I'm starting to think the real goal isn't to maximize every individual position.
It's to build a set of decisions consistent enough to work across dozens, and eventually hundreds, of trades.
I can exit today at +15% and watch the asset climb another 15% afterward.
That doesn't automatically mean my exit was bad.
I captured part of the move.
I followed my system.
My capital is available for the next opportunity.
And most importantly, I don't need to be right about the exact top.
That's the repeatability I'm interested in now.
Not the perfect trade.
Not capturing 100% of every move.
Not the spectacular screenshot.
A system I can apply again and again.
And if your entries seem to work but your results are still inconsistent, maybe your strategy really isn't the problem.
Maybe it's simply time to take a closer look at your exits.
This article only reflects my personal experience and experiments. It is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves the risk of losing capital.
