Stop Losses

[qxr1011]

If it moves away from my expectation I get out immediately for a small loss.

if u r not a daytrader, and afraid that the price will move so fast after your order that you will not have a time to react, then you out of your league - playing too short time frame...you will get burn because your stops (even if you will have time to put them ) will be executed very poorly in case of sudden moves

my strategy requires tight stops

any strategy requiring tight stops is under question, imho...

it should not be tight, but proper stops (realistic, not a wish thinking stops) considering that you are a retail customer with average access, depending on brokers execution etc, etc

my point is : where one puts a stop is much more important than how he puts it

 

[GotherL]

if u r not a daytrader, and afraid that the price will move so fast after your order that you will not have a time to react, then you out of your league.

This strategy actually doesn't have too many sudden extreme moves on the unexpected side so I really don't have much to worry about. I am just deploying stop losses anyways mainly for convenience. Using a trade simulator average loss 3% or less out of 200 trades. Biggest was 10%. Without using stop losses and using a 10/sec to 1 minute ratio in real time.

 

[Simples]

You need to put those questions to a broker, as they often have differing approaches and order-entry systems. Most brokers will permit you to enter a stop at the same time you are preparing an opening order, even if the opening order is not yet filled. The stop will activate and show up on their system when the opening order is filled, but will not be active in the system if the opening order is not filled.

YES. This is part of their despicable user interfaces.

My broker used to have conditional orders. Didn't get mature enough to use them in time, and they removed them in order to dumb down their User Xperience (UX).

 

[lindq]

Ok thanks... Would be nice to find a broker that allows that. Would save me a lot of time!
Although, it's still confusing how it works exactly. Gonna have to try their demo.

You need to also be certain that a conditional order that has been activated, will be canceled automatically if you manually close out your position. You don't want to get a nasty surprise if your conditional order remains open.

Platforms that offer complexity can also bite you if you're not careful.

 

[Simples]

You need to also be certain that a conditional order that has been activated, will be canceled automatically if you manually close out your position. You don't want to get a nasty surprise if your conditional order remains open.

Platforms that offer complexity can also bite you if you're not careful.

Caveat of conditional orders, stop losses and general market orders are... Ta ta. No responsibility taken from your broker, the exchange, counter party or anyone, whatsoever.

Except if you're a Big Bank of course!

 

[java]

with ib, easy peasy. You can configure any order to automatically attach a stop. The stop will not be active until the primary is filled. You can preconfigure the exact price off the bid or ask or last. And that is just one way. You can also set up contigent orders. But all preconfigured settings will give you the option to attach a stop or a profit target or both or neither. When you open your account you will have a very reliable paper account to play around with to see how to set up your whole trading strategy.