Track 1 · Hurst cycle analysis · Lesson 1.11 · 6 min
Managing the trade
Once you are in, the cycles keep working for you. They tell you when to take profit, where to move the stop and when the trade has run out of time.
The plan makes most decisions
Most management is already decided by the plan: the stop, the target and the time the move should take. Managing a trade means following it, not re-thinking it every bar.
At the target
When price reaches the FLD target, take some or all of the position. If the next cycle peak is due well after the target, keep a part running and move its stop to your entry price, so the rest cannot lose.
Trail under the shorter cycle
As the move continues, the shorter cycle keeps making lows. Each new low, once confirmed, is a place to move the stop up to. The trade then stays open for as long as the shorter cycle keeps rising from higher lows.
Pauses are normal
Price often stalls when it reaches a longer cycle’s FLD. A short sideways pause there is the cycles negotiating, not the trade failing. What ends the trade is a close back through the trade cycle’s FLD.
Cycles have a clock
Every cycle trade has a natural length: from the low to the next peak. If the target has not been reached by then, the move has lost its push. Close it on time rather than hoping.
When the bigger wave turns
If the longer cycles turn against you, take what the trade has given and stop adding. A good trade in the wrong season is still a hard trade.
Five checks at every bar close
- 1Stop: is it still beyond the last confirmed low?
- 2Target: has it been reached, and is the peak due later?
- 3FLD: has price closed back through the trade cycle’s FLD?
- 4Clock: has the cycle’s time to the peak run out?
- 5Bigger wave: are the longer cycles still on your side?