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Fixed R Multipledecide the destination before you leave

Evidence: ModerateBeginnerExit · Fixed target

The simplest exit there is: measure the distance to your stop, call it 1R, and place the target at a fixed multiple of it. Two R, three R — the number is a choice, but it is made once and applied to every trade.

Its value is not that it captures the most from each move. It plainly does not. Its value is that it is the only exit on this list with no decisions left in it, which means it can be tested honestly and cannot be talked out of.

This page is an exit method, not a trade. Attach it to any entry in the library and test the pair together — an exit tested against one entry tells you almost nothing about how it behaves with another.

Applies to
Any entry with a defined stop — which should be all of them
Timeframe
Any
Best suited to
Mean-reversion and level-based entries, where the move has a natural destination
Worst suited to
Trend entries — a fixed target caps exactly the trades a trend system needs
Tools
The entry price and the stop price. Nothing else.

Valid setup

EX-01 · FIXED R MULTIPLE — THE SAME TRADE, EXIT ONE EURUSD · H1 · target placed at 2R when the position opens — it fills, and the rest of the move is not this strategy's business LONG 1.0791 1.0827 1.0864 1.0901 1.0938 1.0974 1.1011 2R — taken, and that is the end of it 1R TARGET = 2R, placed at entry ENTRY STOP — this distance IS 1R 1 2 3 1.0860 1.0842 1.0833 ① Entry and stop set — the distance defines 1R ② Target fills at 2R with no decision required ③ The move continued. This exit does not care ④ Nothing to manage, nothing to second-guess ⑤ Right for reversion entries, wrong for trend ones ⑥ The multiple is chosen once, from testing

Exact rules

When it applies

  • Use it when the entry has a reason to stop — a band it is reverting to, a level above it, a range it is crossing.
  • Set the multiple once, from testing, and apply it to every trade of that type. Not per trade, not by feel.
  • Place the order at entry time. An exit you have to remember to take is not a rule.
  • Do not use it on trend entries. The whole return of a trend system lives in the few trades that run far past any fixed multiple.

If it goes wrong

  • The stop defines 1R, so it has to be placed first and for structural reasons — not by picking a comfortable number and calling the result a multiple of it.
  • If the stop is moved after entry, the R multiple no longer means what it did. Either keep the original R or recompute and record both.
  • Risk per trade stays whatever your sizing rule says; the exit method does not change it.

The exit rule

  • Target at N × R from entry, in one order, filled or not.
  • Typical range in testing is 1.5R to 3R. Below 1.5R the win rate has to be implausibly high; above 3R it is reached too rarely for most intraday entries.
  • Measure the hit rate and the average R together. A 2R target with a 40% hit rate and a 1.5R target with a 55% hit rate are close to identical, and only testing tells you which your entry produces.

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Trading carries risk and most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade. The chart is an illustration of the rules on constructed candles — it is not a record of a trade and not a backtest.