Runner

A runner is the piece of a position you keep after taking partials. It stays on for the next level, or until the trend stops making new highs.

Illustration: Runner

In depth

Four contracts. Price leaves your level and hits your first target. You sell three while the candle is still pushing your way. The one you keep is the runner. Selling into strength is the part traders skip. Ask for a fill after the turn and you pay the spread to get out.

A runner still needs a destination and an exit rule, both written before entry. The destination is a price on the chart. The next level up, the far edge of an open gap, or where higher highs stop. Two costs come with it. Give-back, when it round-trips, and time decay on a same-day contract.

Why it matters

A runner changes the size of the wins you already earn. Say you take two thirds off at one times risk. The last third reaches three times risk. Your average on that winner is about 1.67 times risk instead of one. That gap pays for the trades that fail at the level.

How TraderLog tracks this

Open a trade in TraderLog and your fills show on a TradingView chart. You can see where each partial came off. On the stats page, average winner against average loser is the number a runner should move. Results by hold time show whether your long holds pay.

Frequently asked questions

The contracts or shares left on after you take partials. The exit rule stays the same as for the rest of the position.

Many traders do once the partials cover the risk. The trade-off is real, since a tight trail turns pullbacks into exits.

Keep your Runner trades on the record in TraderLog

Trades import from Schwab and IBKR on their own, every day lands on a calendar with its P&L, and the day's entry sits beside it. Replay any trade on a TradingView chart. Free for 14 days, no card.

Every trading morning at 8:40 ET our model draws the SPY, QQQ and IWM zones it expects to matter, on a TradingView chart, before the open. Where price reaches one, it has turned 74 percent of the time. Free, no account. See today's map