Every complete trade signal has the same three ingredients: where to get in, where to get out if you're wrong, and where to get out if you're right. Understanding how these levels relate to each other, and why they sit where they do, is the difference between following a signal and blindly copying it.

The entry

The entry is the price at which you open the position. In a BUY (long) trade you buy the asset expecting it to rise; in a SELL (short) trade you sell or short it expecting it to fall.

Entries are usually placed at a meaningful location on the chart, for example:

  • a retest of a broken resistance level that should now act as support;
  • a pullback to a rising moving average inside an uptrend;
  • a confirmed breakout, after a candle closes beyond a level.

In practice you rarely get exactly the entry price. Price may be slightly above or below by the time you act. A small difference is normal; a large one changes the trade's risk and reward, and is a reason to skip it. That's why SignalEye checks each signal's entry against the live Binance price before sending it, and rejects setups whose entry is too far from the market.

Market and limit orders

A market order fills immediately at the best available price. A limit order waits for your chosen price and may never fill. Many traders use a limit order at or near the signal's entry and accept that some trades will be missed rather than chasing price.

The stop loss

The stop loss is the price at which you accept that the trade idea is wrong and exit with a planned, limited loss. For a BUY, it sits below the entry. For a SELL, it sits above.

A good stop isn't an arbitrary percentage. It's placed where the reason for the trade stops being true:

  • below the support level the trade was based on (for a long);
  • below the most recent higher low in an uptrend;
  • above the resistance or lower high that defined a short.

Stops are usually placed a little beyond the level, not exactly on it, to allow for normal wicks.

Important: a stop loss limits loss, but it doesn't guarantee an exact exit price. In fast markets price can gap through the stop and fill worse than planned ("slippage"). This is one more reason to keep position sizes small.

The distance between entry and stop is your risk per unit. It's the number you need to calculate your position size, explained in our position sizing guide.

Take-profit targets

Take-profit levels, or targets (TP1, TP2, …), are prices where you close all or part of the position in profit. For a BUY they're above the entry in rising order; for a SELL they're below it in falling order.

Targets typically sit just before obstacles where price may stall:

  • the next resistance zone (for a long) or support zone (for a short);
  • a previous swing high or low;
  • a round number that attracts orders.

SignalEye signals carry one to four targets. Several targets allow you to bank part of the profit early and let the rest run.

Risk-to-reward ratio

The risk-to-reward ratio (R:R) compares the potential gain to a target with the potential loss to the stop. It's calculated as:

reward ÷ risk = |target − entry| ÷ |entry − stop|

Example for a BUY:

  • Entry: 100
  • Stop loss: 96 (risk = 4)
  • TP1: 106 (reward = 6, so R:R = 1.5)
  • TP2: 110 (reward = 10, so R:R = 2.5)

Why it matters: with a 1.5 R:R you can be wrong more often than right and still not lose money overall. At 1.5 R:R, breaking even (before fees) requires winning just 40% of trades, because 0.4 × 1.5 = 0.6, which equals 0.6 × 1. SignalEye's AI is instructed to propose trades only when the reward to the first target is at least 1.5 times the risk.

R:R isn't everything, though. A distant target gives a great ratio on paper but is reached less often. Realistic targets matter more than impressive ratios.

Managing a trade with several targets

There's no single correct way to manage a multi-target trade. Common approaches:

Scaling out

Close a portion at each target, for example a third at TP1, a third at TP2 and the rest at TP3. This locks in gains along the way at the cost of a smaller final win.

Moving the stop to break-even

After TP1 is reached, many traders move the stop to the entry price. The remaining position can then no longer turn into a loss (barring slippage), though it may be stopped out at zero on a normal pullback. SignalEye reminds you of this option when TP1 is hit; it doesn't move your stop for you.

Trailing stop

Move the stop behind each new swing low (for a long) as the trend progresses. This can capture larger moves but requires attention.

Choose one approach and apply it consistently. Changing your plan mid-trade based on emotion is one of the most common ways to turn a good strategy into a bad one.

How SignalEye reports outcomes

Because traders manage trades differently, SignalEye reports outcomes by levels reached, not by a single profit figure:

  • All targets hit: price reached the final target.
  • TPn hit, then stop: some targets were reached before price returned to the original stop loss.
  • Stop loss hit: the stop was reached before any target.
  • Expired: neither happened within the signal's time limit.

You'll find these on the public track record.

Checklist before you enter

  1. Is the current price close to the signal's entry? If it has run far away, the R:R is different. Skip or wait.
  2. Where exactly is my stop, and how much do I lose if it's hit?
  3. Is my position size based on that loss, not on how confident I feel?
  4. Which targets will I take profit at, and will I move my stop after TP1?
  5. Am I comfortable with the worst case, including slippage?

If you can answer all five before clicking buy or sell, you're trading a plan rather than reacting to a message.