I've noticed that many beginners in crypto make the same mistake — they just buy a coin and sit, waiting for it to grow. The result? They get stuck in a trade for weeks, lose sight of their goal, and then sell at a loss. That's where a proper profit calculation comes in handy.

Profit isn’t a complicated thing. Essentially, it’s your target selling price, which you set in advance. When you enter a position, you should already know at what percentage of profit you plan to exit. It’s like setting a stop-loss, but in the positive direction.

The formula is simple: the target price equals the entry price multiplied by one plus the profit percentage divided by one hundred. It sounds more complicated than it actually is.

Let’s look at examples. Bought a coin for 1,000 USDT, aiming for 0.5% profit. Multiply 1,000 by 1.005 — you get 1,005. That’s it, set your sell order at this price. Or another case: entered at 0.328, targeting 0.6% profit. Calculate 0.328 times 1.006 — approximately 0.330. Exit at this price.

Now the main question — what profit percentage should you set? If you want to avoid hanging around and trade frequently, take 0.3–0.6%. If the coin is volatile, you can raise it to 0.7–1%. Above 1.5% is risky, especially if the market isn’t in an uptrend. There’s a high chance the price won’t reach your target level, and you’ll end up at a loss.

Here’s what’s important to consider: the exchange fee eats up about 0.1% on entry and 0.1% on exit. Total of 0.2% just gone. So, if you set a profit less than 0.2%, you won’t make any profit — you’ll only lose on fees. If you set it at 0.5%, your net profit after all fees will be around 0.3%. Keep this in mind.

What happens if you ignore the profit? First option — you set too small a profit, and fees eat it up, leaving you in the negative. Second — you set a huge profit target, wait a week, but the price doesn’t reach it, and you end up at a loss. Third — you don’t set a target at all and trade based on intuition. It’s like going to an unfamiliar city without a navigator.

My advice: always calculate first. Don’t guess. It’s better to make five successful trades at 0.5% each than one ambitious 5% trade that you never see coming. Trading isn’t about intuition; it’s about math. If you know the price at which you’ll exit, you control the situation, not the other way around.