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Well, it depends on a broker. Does yours offer mobile or at least browser platform? I had an outage the other day and just went to my cell phone and watched it there.
Living in the boonies and relying on satellite internet I never place a trade without a standing stop order. Even with a more reliable situation anything can still happen. As long as you have a connection you can always adjust your stop but when the lights go out you can sleep.
As other traders have mentioned, I always have standing stop loss orders for a trade and for the day. In addition, I have two UPS for my two computers and an extra one for my FIOS modem which serves the whole house (available power for at least 30 minutes each). I also have a (hot spot) device that connects me with the web so that I can reach my broker over T-Mobile in case FIOS goes down in my neighborhood. Best of luck.
I occasionally lose power or internet service for up to 2 hours in my area.
My UPS keeps my desktop PC, cable modem, and router up for 10-15 minutes, long enough to shut down the desktop if necessary.
I have T-Mobile which includes a wifi hot spot capability for no charge.
I have been able to use this wifi for multiple devices (phone, laptop, and desktop).
I cannot believe that only a handful of replies state the obvious...
Use stops - no matter how inconvenient they may be. But, your trading software makes life easy with pre-programmed targets and stops (if you know how to use them, that is).
One click on either buy or sell is all it takes, after you program the software.
Been reading replies and comments and all are excellent pointers:
use stops
have your broker number handy
understand what other markets may be used as a hedge in case it is an exchange outage
have a back up battery for your power
consider having another trading account with another FCM if you are trading enough risk capital.
PM with any questions about Cannon Trading (800) 454-9572 (310) 859-9572. Trading commodity futures, forex and options involves substantial risk of loss. The recommendations contained in this post are of opinion only and do not guarantee any profits. These are risky markets and only risk capital should be used. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
You should always have 2 orders placed when you have an active trade an oco with a limit and below that a market. The 2nd order is there to protect from a thrust in the wrong direction where you do not get filled on the limit. Having your brokers number, your account number and cell phone charged is a must. UPS and land lines may not be effective if the utility companies are affected. The cell phone is so you can sleep that night on a protracted outage
This is an important issue that needs to be clarified. My understanding is that stop orders (what are actually stop market orders) reside in your broker's server, not the exchange. That is, once the stop condition is triggered, the broker then routes the order as a market order to the exchange. In contrast, limit orders are immediately routed to the exchange and reside on the exchange awaiting execution. This is an important distinction.
Stop limit orders work similarly. That is, the stop limit orders also reside on your broker's server until the stop condition is met. Then, once stop condition is met, your broker routes the limit order (that you've specified as a part of the stop limit order) to the exchange where it awaits execution as a limit order.
Point being, my understanding is that only limit orders reside (or rest) on the exchange and raw market order are the only other order type sent to the exchange. If it's not a limit or market order, it doesn't go to the exchange as such. Whereas, nonbasic order types all reside w your broker and your broker executes those orders according to however the order type is designed to behave...market if touched, oco, etc.
Having said that, maybe I'm wrong and misunderstanding. If so, my apologies for spreading nonsense. But this is why I post this. Further, I am pretty sure there is going to be no practical difference between the stop order residing on the broker's server versus resting on the exchange itself. I think it's just something we should understand for the sake of clarity.
Other side of this is that it would be VERY valuable to know where all pending stop orders are located price wise. I'm pretty sure brokers sell this data to market makers for a pretty penny. But if all stop orders rested on the exchange, then that would be a huge boon that all participants should have access to, just like we have access to the limit order book.
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Separate issue, I am a big fan of daily loss limits set with your broker. I saw this mentioned above. Be sure you specify and understand the actual expected behavior...max daily unrealized loss vs max daily realized loss, when trading is cut off. So, for example, if your unrealized profit ever exceeds x dollars or y percent of the account (or whatever you want) then halt trading for the day and go flat.
Your broker should be able to mimic prop shop style money management and risk controls in whatever way you can imagine. You can also turn down your margin (increase margin requirement) and prevent over leveraging.