Entry, Cut-Loss, and Take-Profit: The Anatomy of a Trade Plan

The difference between trading and gambling is a plan decided before you enter. That plan comes down to three numbers: where you get in, where you admit you are wrong, and where you take profit.

The entry zone

Good entries are a zone, not a single price. Defining a range near support (or a breakout level) keeps you from chasing and gives the market room to fill you at a sensible price.

The stop-loss comes first

Counterintuitively, the most important number is your exit if you are wrong. Placing your stop below the level that would invalidate your thesis defines your risk before you ever think about reward. If you cannot identify a sensible stop, you do not yet have a trade.

Take-profit targets

• Set staged targets so you can lock in gains as the move develops.
• Aim for a reward that justifies the risk you are taking.
• Let the structure of the chart — not hope — define where you exit.

Let the plan do the work

Every StockPilot report ships with all three numbers, so discipline is built in from the first line. The goal is simple: make the calm decision in advance, then follow it.