Is there an advantage to using attached orders? I normally just hit buy/sell market and when I want out I hit flatten. Once in a position I do set a stop but is the attached order just for simplicity instead of having to add a stop after entry?

Also, I assume I will get better fills using buy/sell stops apposed to market orders?

Thanks

58LesPaul 

Is there an advantage to using attached orders? I normally just hit buy/sell market and when I want out I hit flatten. Once in a position I do set a stop but is the attached order just for simplicity instead of having to add a stop after entry? Also, I assume I will get better fills using buy/sell stops apposed to market orders? Thanks

Sounds like you hold trades for a short period of time. If intending to hold for longer, or to be more hands off in just setting the trade and giving it time to play out without watching the market tick by tick, then attaching orders is more convenient.

An attached sell stop or buy stop added to control risk and exit on an adverse move is the same as a market order. When price reaches your stop the order is converted to a market order to fill at the best available price, so there would be no difference between a stop order and market order executing at the same price because they are both transacted as market orders.

When you hit flatten to exit you are exiting with a market order. You would get a better price if you tried to exit with a limit order. Depending on your platform you might be able to set a keyboard shortcut to place a limit order to sell the offer or buy the bid rather hitting out with a market order on the unfavourable side of the spread. Or place the order on the DOM or chart.

At the end of the day it depends how frequently you trade and how much volume. The more contracts you trade you might want to try and not give up the spread on both entry and exit with market orders.
Also could depend on the market you trade, a thin market like the NQ/MNQ one can often get filled by clicking to enter a limit of the favourable side of the spread getting filled with how much price chops around.
Or your style of trading, if a momentum trader looking for price to breakout you might need to hit in as others are buying because if you try and enter passively you won't get filled.

Just a few thoughts, some may be relevant for you, others not.

58LesPaul 

Is there an advantage to using attached orders? I normally just hit buy/sell market and when I want out I hit flatten. Once in a position I do set a stop but is the attached order just for simplicity instead of having to add a stop after entry?

The first time I realized I could get the trading platform to automatically send in my stop and target when I opened a trade, I jumped at it, and I have used it on every trade since then. Why? Because, unlike me, the machine sill not screw it up and forget to put in a stop, or dither about where to put it, or get scared that it will be hit and just not enter it, or "wait and see." It just does it.

This automatic entry has saved me from myself many times. I may, and usually do, adjust the stop and/or target after they are entered at some point during the trade, but I never, ever find myself without a stop while the market has suddenly turned against me. And I don't ever want to.

As simple as that.

Bob.