Bracket orders that precommit stop and target exits

A three-ticket package

A bracket is a three-ticket package: a limit entry plus a pre-set stop-loss and a pre-set profit-taking limit, so both exits are already live once the trader steps away.

A long bracket uses a buy limit, a stop below that price, and a sell limit above it. A short bracket uses a sell limit, a stop above that price, and a buy limit below it.

Size the ticket from the stop

How many names can be staged is bounded by account size and the house risk protocol, not by how many symbols pass a screen.

Share count equals the dollar risk limit divided by the price gap between the intended entry and the stop. Position-size-from-stop uses that stop-loss gap as the denominator for the share count, and it converts the acceptable adverse swing into a hard loss bound.

On a $100,000 account with a 0.5% per-trade risk cap, a $50 buy limit and a $49.50 stop imply a $500 / $0.50 gap and a 1,000-share ceiling.

Place the profit limit from the same gap

The profit-taking limit is placed at a chosen multiple of that same entry-to-stop gap. A multiple of two on the $50 / $0.50 long puts the sell limit at $51.

That multiple is the risk-reward-ratio. It locates the profit-taking limit a fixed number of stop-distances beyond the intended fill, so the reward side is sized from the same gap that caps the loss.

Send the three tickets together

All three tickets should be sent together. If the entry price is revised, the stop and profit limit must be restacked so the original dollar risk and reward multiple stay intact.

The limit-order is the price-conditioned ticket used for the entry and for the profit-taking exit, so fills are attempted only at the chosen prices rather than at an unpriced market.

Cancel the leftover exit and flatten at the close

Any leftover position should be flattened at the cash-session close. Session-close-flatten is the day-session rule that closes any leftover position if neither attached exit has triggered, so the trade is not carried into after-hours.

The broker must cancel the remaining exit if either the stop or the profit limit fills. Linked-exit-cancel is that routing, so the two closing tickets cannot both complete.

Attached stop and profit-limit tickets remove discretionary exit decisions. A later drop of the profit limit leaves the automatic stop as a triggered market order that can incur slippage.