Scale out or hold for the full target?

[Shadow Trader]

Taking half of the position off at a first target and leaving the rest to run is popular among scalpers. It feels like having the cake and eating it.

The mechanics deserve scrutiny. Closing half at 1R and letting the rest run to 2R gives an average of 1.5R on winners. But the second half often gets stopped at break-even after the first target is hit, yielding only 0.5R on the whole trade. And because two exits mean two spreads, the cost goes up.

Whether scaling beats a single exit depends on the strategy. Trend-following scalps with strong follow-through often benefit. Mean-reversion scalps, where the target is a fixed level like a range midpoint, usually do not, since price tends to stall at the level.

The way to settle it is to journal both versions on paper for 100 trades and compare the totals after costs.

Which exit style has produced better numbers in the records kept here?