Add to winners without giving back the trade
Scaling into strength is powerful but every add raises your average and shrinks your cushion. This tool shows the blended entry after each add so you know exactly where the whole position flips from green to red. For adds into weakness, use the average down calculator instead.
Adding to winners without giving it all back
Pyramiding adds size to a position already in profit — the opposite of averaging down. Done right, each addition is smaller than the last (hence the pyramid) and the stop rises to protect the blended position, so a reversal exits the whole structure at a net gain. Done wrong — equal or growing adds, stop left at origin — one pullback erases three adds of progress.
Worked structure: long $2,000 from $1.00 with a stop at $0.96. At $1.06, add $1,000, stop to $1.005 (whole position now can't lose). At $1.12, add $500, stop to $1.06. The blended entry rises but every stage locks the previous stage's gains. Max drawdown from any point: roughly one add's worth of open profit.
The condition it needs: a trending market. Pyramids build losses in chop, because each add buys a local top before the range mean-reverts. The regime filter — only pyramid what's making higher highs on your timeframe, only after the base position is 1R+ in profit — is what separates trend-followers from bagholders with extra transactions.