how to know when to exit a trade?

i use fibonacci retracement to know when to exit. Usually in an up trend, the fibonacci levels are meant to hold price up and keep price from falling, so when i see that price starts breaking through the fibonacci levels, i exit the trade.

I exit before important news releases for example when us nonfarm payroll news is about to be released, i exit any trade that has to do with the us dollar. But on days when there is no important news coming, i exit after i see a bullish or bearish engulfing pattern.

So, if we are in an upward moving trend and i suddenly see a big bearish engulfing pattern, i exit. If we are in a down trend and i suddenly see a big bullish engulfing pattern, i also exit.

There are several candlestick patterns and indicators that help guide you on when a trend is about to change

I always exit when price is nearing a major support/resistance level because there is a high chance it might reverse. I try to execute multiple trades before price gets to a support/resistance so i exit with profits as it nears it.

I exit when my profit target is reached. if my stop loss os wirth $10 and my trade reaches a profit of $20 i exit and thats a 1:2 risk to reward.

When I am facing a loss, I always wait till my stop loss is hit. I have had many bad experiences where i exited before my stop was hit, only for price to reverse course and move in my intended direction. But when I am facing a profit, I wait till price rises above/below the simple moving average.

One technique is to use the Simple Moving Average (SMA). If you went long and candlesticks begin to fall/close under the 14 day SMA curve, it is a bad omen. Same thing with if you were short and candles begin to close above your 14 day SMA curve it is a warning sign.

Please look at this image and if you were shorting the market, you would see that when orice closed above the 14 SMA it kept going up so exiting would have saved you losses.

It is good to exit when your profit reaches a specific number of pips. Depending on the currency pair you can research how many pips it moves in a day on the average. For example for EUR/USD I exit after 12 pips profit. You shouldn't have to think before exiting a trade, it should be a rule you have set in place for yourself. this will prevent greed from taking over.

But what about risk to reward?

Risk to Reward has to do with getting a low risk entry so your stop loss value is not ore than your estimated profit target. But after you get your sniper entry you will be faced with the challenge of when to exit the trade and that is what I was answering. For me I prefer to exit after a certain number of pips have been bagged.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face " - Mike Tyson.

The same happens in trading, everyone says they're gonna exit when their profit reaches a certain amount but when it does, they just get greedy and refuse to exit. It is better to use a take profit to remove emotions from your exit plan. Although they say you should let your profits run, you can use a trailing stop or even take partial profit to at least secure some profits.

My exit is depended on the setup and i also use a fix risk to reward ratio. A 1:3 risk to reward ratio is enough for me to exit any trade.

That is what the other user just said about everyone saying they have a plan until they get hit in the mouth by the market. Even if you have a fixed RR ratio it doesnt mean your emotions cannot come out to fight against you. Automating the process removes emotions

What do you mean by automating the process?