Thanks for the compliments. I like to keep things light. There are plenty of very serious trading and finance sites out there, so I might as well have some fun here.

My stops are almost always level based. I’m okay with a little slippage. I’ve found that battles take place at well-known levels, so the slippage is mitigated a bit.

I’ve never traded/invested long-term, and though I’ve read a bit about options I’m not well-versed. I understand, though, that they are often used to hedge against positions that you feel may go against you for a period of time. From what I know, options seem like an interesting possibility for trading & investing and I really need t0 learn more about them.

Thanks for commenting, Derek.

I think you’re doing a great job with the blog…light enough to keep it readable but with a serious message hidden. Your approach makes a lot of sense, and at least partially protects you from fear and greed right off the bat. Are your stops levels-based or dollars-based? Levels makes more sense, but you also risk extra slippage if levels are known. I’m a little longer-term, so buying calls and puts kind of acts as my built-in stop and frees me of worrying about the disaster scenario. Hardest part for me is the part in between obvious losses and easy windfalls, which covers a lot of ground!

Thanks,
Ravi.

While the OT/OCA is a useful tool, it might not fit every strategy. I tend to pick targets based on support/resistance, whole numbers, and technical factors. I also scale out of my trades, as Michelle mentioned in her comment.

Perhaps an OT/OCA can be utlized with your style of trading by having one of the OCA’s act as a hard stop, and the other as a trailing stop. The trailing stop would allow you to lock in profits if you happen to get distracted when the trendline is broken. If you’re only trading 1 stock and you watch it like a hawk though, this might not be necessary.

Hope this helped!

Any suggestions?

Ravi.

The planning portion of the trade is often overlooked. Impulsive trading will kill an account quickly. Traders definitely have to take the time to plan a trade properly in order to utilize these advanced order types.

You’re right about using multilpe orders too. Using more than one of these order types gives one the flexibility to adjust this technique to fit his or her personal trading style.

Thanks for your insights, Michelle.

More than one bracketted order can be set up so one can scale in and out of a trade in order to book partial profits if that kind of management is preferred than all in and all out.