How long do you give a sideways trade before exiting?

I am putting together a trend trading strategy and one thing i see mentioned every so often is along the lines of: "if i put on a trade, and it doesn't go up then i get out"...I am not talking about hitting a SL but rather just not going up like you anticipated.

I am curious as to the reasoning behind exiting a position solely because it is slower to react than you had predicted. I understand the motivation for this with something like options contracts where Theta is slowly eating away but what other reasons? Simply to put your capital into something more active? You are proven wrong in your timing based on the sideways movement? How long do you give a trade to make upwards movement before exiting?

thanks.

p.s. please comment with your opinion no matter what particular trading style/duration you employ.

 

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With cash ETFs seldom get out in a sideways/slop chop;
leveraged ETFs, ok out some/exit..............................................................

 

Depends on the markets, choppy quickly, trendy a pause before a fast resume is the normal so slowly.

Wish it was every that easy

 

When in doubt get out

I give daytrades up to an hour or so, swings up to 2-3 days.

Great topic

 

When the price action dictates. Have a time frame in mind as a reference, but price action always rules.

 

I keep it as long until I have something better to put it into...

 

max 18 hours.
I will close all the positions before I go to sleep.

 

Years here.

 

Your trade/setup was based on ?

Either price action supports it, or it doesn’t. Don’t trade on hope.

 

So are you saying time isn’t a concern as long as you like what you see on the charts? Even if what you see is sideways movement for an extended period of time (“extended” being relative to each individual based what their average time frame is).