TradersCutting Winners Short: How Much of the Move Do You Keep?
Price moved 30 points your way and you kept 9. Measure how much of each move you keep and you'll see whether the fear of giving profit back is closing your trades for you.
Written By
Karolina Hansen
Key Takeaways
- Move kept is the share of the favourable move (from entry to the best price reached while the trade was open) that you still had when you closed.
- Left on the table is the rest of that move, the gap between your exit and the best price.
- Nobody keeps 100%. You can't know the best price until it has already gone.
- If your share is low trade after trade, your exits are probably being made by the fear of giving profit back rather than by a plan.
Cutting winners short means closing a trade that's working well before it gets to where you planned to take profit. In the moment it feels safe. Over a few months of trades it can shrink your average win until your losses are bigger than it. The good part is that it's easy to measure. You compare how far price moved in your favour with how much of that move you actually banked.
What “Move Kept” Measures
The move
From your entry to the best price reached while the trade was still open, in the trade's direction.
Move kept
How much of that move you still had when you closed, as a percentage.
Left on the table
The part of the move you gave up, measured from your exit back to the best price.
Move kept = (exit price − entry price) ÷ (best price − entry price). For a sell, flip it round: (entry − exit) ÷ (entry − best price). Only the time the trade was open counts, so whatever price does after you close isn't part of it.
A Worked Example on Gold
Say you buy gold (XAUUSD) at 4,000 with 0.10 lots. At that size every $1 move in gold is worth $10 to you. While you're in, price gets as high as 4,030. Then it pulls back, you get nervous and you close at 4,009.
| Measure | Points | Money at 0.10 lots |
|---|---|---|
| Best move available (4,000 → 4,030) | 30 | $300 |
| Move kept (4,000 → 4,009) | 9 | $90 |
| Left on the table (4,009 → 4,030) | 21 | $210 |
One gold trade: the full move and what you kept (worked example)
One trade doesn't tell you much. Price might simply have turned after you got out. What you want is the pattern across lots of trades, like this illustrative month of five winners.
Move kept on five winning trades (illustrative example)
Why Traders Close Early
Most early exits come from one feeling, the fear of giving back profit you can already see. An open gain starts to feel like money you own. Watching it shrink feels like losing, even when the trade is still comfortably in profit. So you close it to make the feeling stop.
What closing early feels like
- Relief, because the profit is “safe”
- A higher win rate, since fewer winners turn back
- Less time staring at the chart
What it does over time
- Smaller average wins
- You need a higher win rate just to break even
- Exits that change from one trade to the next, which makes them hard to measure
Full-size losses and half-size wins. You never agreed to that deal. It got made one exit at a time.
How to Keep More of the Move
Write the exit before you enter
Decide your target or your trailing rule before you click buy or sell.
Let the orders do the work
Put the take profit in as an order. Then closing early takes a deliberate decision, and you can't do it on a twitch.
Step away from the chart
Watch every tick and a small pullback looks far bigger than it is.
Review the gap each week
Check your average move kept and the money left on the table. Pick out the trades you closed by hand.
- I know where I'll take profit before I enter
- If I closed a trade early, I can say why
- I compare my move kept with my plan, not with the perfect exit
- I change one exit rule at a time and give it a few weeks
See your move kept and what you left on the table.
Open Your JournalFrequently Asked Questions
There isn't one figure that suits everyone. It depends on how you exit, because a fixed target and a trailing stop give different numbers. Compare it with your own plan and watch how it changes.
No. It only uses the best price reached while the trade was open. What happens after you close is a separate question.
Nobody knows the best price in advance, so keeping 100% isn't a realistic aim. What you're after is exits that follow your plan rather than your nerves.
Educational content only, not financial advice. Examples are illustrative arithmetic and exclude costs. Trading involves risk, and past performance does not guarantee future results.
Continue learning
Price Action Trading: Reading the Chart Without IndicatorsThe basics of price action trading. How to read the market without indicators and base your decisions on what price is actually doing.Also worth reading: Risk Management Basics: Decide What You Can Lose Before You Trade · What Is Liquidity in Trading?
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