Adding and scaling - add-ons, scale cycles and the re-add floor
Auto add-on adds to a position that is working, up to a set number of times, and re-bases the trailing stop when it does. Scale cycle sells part of a position into a pullback and buys it back over the high. The re-add floor stops a re-add from filling below your original entry, so it never averages down.
In this video
The 30-second version
The same topic in thirty seconds, made for a phone screen.
Both videos use the desk in paper mode with made-up symbols and prices.
Read the transcript
Add to a winner
Auto add-on adds to a winning position when it is Add at percent ahead, up to Max adds times. An add re-bases the trailing stop, so the stop is measured from the new position.
The scale cycle
Scale cycle sells part of the position into a pullback from the peak, while still in profit, Sell percent decides how much comes off, and then it re-adds over the high, with Re-add size. On the short side it covers into a bounce, and re-adds under the low. A re-add of zero means sell only.
Re-adding sooner
Re-add lift percent re-adds when price lifts that far off its running low since the sale, instead of waiting to reclaim the peak. Re-add size percent is how much goes back on, as a share of what was sold. Re-add lift is off at zero, so the classic reclaim of the peak runs instead.
The re-add floor
Re-add floor: the re-add may never fill below the original entry. If price goes through the entry, the cycle stops, and the stop loss owns the trade. That is what stops a scale cycle from averaging down.
Rebase and limits
REBASE ON ADD moves the stop to your stop distance from the add price, and measures the step trail from there. Scale cycles caps how many sell-then-re-add cycles one stock may run in a session. Zero means no cap of its own. Test the cap in paper first, so you see how many cycles a session runs.
In practice
A common way to use it: let a runner pay you part of the move on the first pullback, then rebuild the position if it makes a new high, with the floor and the stop loss making sure the cycle can never turn into averaging down.