Charts & technicals
What technical signals say it is time to take profit?
The readable ones are volume falling while price keeps rising, a break of the structure that carried the move, a failed retest of a broken level, and exhaustion after a vertical extension. All four are useful and none is reliable enough to be your only exit, which is why a mechanical rule beats every signal on this page.
The four signals
- Volume divergence. Price makes a new high, volume does not. Fewer participants are paying more, which is how tops are built.
- Break of structure. The sequence of higher lows that carried the move ends. This one has a specific price, which makes it the most usable of the four.
- Failed retest. Price breaks a level, comes back, and cannot reclaim it. The level flipped, and so did who is trapped.
- Exhaustion. A vertical extension away from any level, on the largest volume of the move. Often the best exit available and always the hardest to take.
Why the rule still wins
Every signal above is clear in hindsight and ambiguous live, and you will be reading them while holding a position that is influencing your judgement. A rule decided in advance - sell the original stake at a defined multiple, keep a stop under the rest, exit on a time limit - executes without needing you to be right about which signal you are looking at.
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