Pine Script v6 Strategy Exit Blueprint: Stop Loss, Target, and Trailing Logic

A clean Pine Script strategy exit should make the stop, target, and trailing behavior easy to explain. If the exit logic cannot be explained, the backtest should not be trusted yet.

Exit logic is where many promising strategies become confusing. A trader adds a stop loss, then a target, then a trailing stop, and suddenly the backtest becomes hard to explain. My rule is simple: exits must be readable before they are optimized.

Start with one job per exit

Before writing code, decide what each exit is supposed to do. The fixed stop protects the trade. The target defines the planned reward. The trailing logic protects open profit after the trade has moved. If those roles overlap too much, the strategy may look active but become difficult to trust.

//@version=6
strategy("ATR stop + target + trailing example", overlay = true, pyramiding = 0)

fast = ta.ema(close, 20)
slow = ta.ema(close, 50)
atr = ta.atr(14)

longSignal = ta.crossover(fast, slow) and barstate.isconfirmed

if longSignal
    strategy.entry("Long", strategy.long)

entry = strategy.position_avg_price
fixedStop = entry - atr * 1.5
fixedTarget = entry + atr * 3.0
trailOffset = atr * 1.2

if strategy.position_size > 0
    strategy.exit("Long exit", "Long", stop = fixedStop, limit = fixedTarget, trail_offset = trailOffset)

plot(fast, "Fast EMA", color = color.teal)
plot(slow, "Slow EMA", color = color.orange)

What I check before delivery

• Does the stop use the real average entry price?
• Does the target make sense after commission and slippage?
• Does the trailing stop activate in a way the trader can explain?
• Does the result change heavily between historical and realtime candles?
• Does the alert message match the exit path shown on the chart?

How Jayadev Rana can help

If your current script has exits but the behavior feels random, I can usually identify whether the issue is position state, order ID naming, strategy.exit arguments, or unrealistic assumptions in the backtest.

Send your exit logic for a fixed-price review

Read next: Pine Script alerts by Jayadev Rana or see public examples in the Work section.

Frequently asked questions