How to use take profit with signals: TP1, TP2, TP3 and what the numbers say

Two traders follow the same signals for a month and finish with very different numbers. Often the difference is not the entries, it is what each of them did at TP1. This guide gives you the rules, the trade-off behind each, and a way to test them on any provider's signals, then shows one replayed month of our own signals.

The three targets, and what reaching each one means

Most signal providers give three targets. On a well-built signal they are not arbitrary spacing: TP1 sits at the first level price is likely to react at, TP2 at the next, and TP3 at the level that, if reached, means the move did everything the setup promised. If a provider's targets are evenly spaced round numbers, that is worth noticing before you choose a rule.

Because of that, the hit rates fall off: far more signals reach TP1 than reach TP3. That shape is normal for any signal service, and it means the choice of target is a trade-off between how often you win and how much you win. The risk reward calculator puts a number on each side: the R multiple of each target, and the win rate that target needs to break even.

The four rules people actually use

Close everything at TP1. Highest hit rate, smallest gain per trade. Each win is small, and one full stop wipes out several of them.

Close everything at TP2. The middle path. Fewer wins than TP1, larger ones.

Hold for TP3 with the original stop. Lowest win rate, largest wins, and the largest swings in your equity. The trade is placed with the signal's stop and TP3 and nothing moves.

Partials with the stop to entry. Close a portion at TP1 (70% at TP1, 20% at TP2, 10% at TP3 is a common ladder), move the stop to the entry price, let the rest run. This is the rule most people think is the smart one.

A worked example

Gold sell, entry 2410.50, TP1 2405.50 (50 pips), TP2 2400.50 (100), TP3 2392.50 (180), SL 2418.50 (80 pips), counting gold in tenths of a dollar so 50 pips is $5.00 of price.

• Close at TP1: +50, or the stop at 80 if it never gets there.
• Hold to TP3: +180 or the stop at 80. Before costs, this pays if TP3 is reached on more than 80 ÷ (80 + 180), about 31% of such trades. The number to check on any provider is how often TP3 is reached, not how often TP1 is; they are very different rates.
• 70/20/10 with stop to entry: if price reaches TP1, pulls back to entry, then runs to TP3, you get 70% of 50 pips plus zero on the rest: +35, where the hold rule got +180 from the same trade. If price reaches TP1 and then reverses to the stop, the ladder keeps its +35 and the hold rule takes the full 80.

Those two paths are the whole guide: no rule wins both.

So which rule

It depends on one thing: what you can hold through.

• If a full stop after two wins makes you skip the next signal, take TP1 or TP2 and accept smaller months. A rule you abandon under pressure is worse than a smaller rule you keep.
• If you can size small enough that a full stop is an uneventful number (the position sizing guide shows how), and a long stretch underwater does not change your behaviour, hold for TP3 with the stop left alone. It pays the most when the signals are good and it loses more often.
• If you want partials, take them, and make the stop a separate decision. The breakeven guide is about that one decision: a stop moved to entry closes the rest of the position at entry when price comes back, and a stop left where the signal put it keeps the runner on trending signals while the portion still open on some trades reaches the original stop. The copier lets you set either (the 70/20/10 ladder with the stop adjustment on or off).

What you should not do is switch rules trade by trade. Hold this one because it looks strong, close that one at TP1 because you are nervous: that is a rule too, and it is the worst one, because it closes the winners early and holds the losers.

Test the rules on your provider's signals

Before you trust any of the above, run it on the signals you actually follow. Take the last 30 days of a channel and, for each signal, note the entry, stop and targets and which target price reached first, or the stop. Then score the month under each rule: all at TP1, all at TP2, hold for TP3, and the 70/20/10 ladder with and without the stop move. A spreadsheet does it in an hour; a candle-by-candle replay does it better because it sees the pullbacks between targets. Whatever the totals say, the rule you can keep for a whole month is the one to run.

What one replayed month of our signals showed

We ran our own VIP channel through the replay engine behind our Analyzer: it parses each signal, fills at the first candle that spans the entry and walks the price path candle by candle. In an ambiguous candle that spans both a target and the stop, the stop wins. For the 30 days from 24 August to 21 September 2026: 85 signals posted, 79 resolved inside the window (6 were still open or had touched nothing when it closed, and are left out rather than guessed at), 3 hit the stop before any target, 96% reached TP1, average stop 174.8 pips. The month's write-up splits the same signals by market and session.

One month is one month; the full history is on the results page. What does not change with the month is the mechanism behind every rule above. When price pulls back through the entry after TP1 and then runs on, a stop moved to entry closes the rest of the position on the pullback, and a stop left alone stays in for TP2 and TP3. When price turns from TP1 all the way back, the moved stop closes the rest at entry, and the stop left alone closes that part at the full stop.

Figures from a replay of the VIP channel's own messages, 24 August to 21 September 2026. The export carries each resolved signal's time, symbol, side and published-method result, and the wrapper script shows exactly how it was produced.

On the Forexero copier

If you run the Forexero Copier, the rule is a setting. The default ladder is 70/20/10 partials with a move to entry at TP1, which mirrors how the desk manages signals live and is the right setting for someone who wants small, frequent wins and the highest win rate. "TP3 set and forget" switches the partials and the stop move off and is the hold rule above. Any mix in between (the 70/20/10 ladder with the stop move off, say) is a custom setting on the same page. The parameters guide explains every setting. The point of setting it once is that the decision is made on a calm afternoon and not at 14:31 with a trade ten pips from TP1.