fast moving momentum trade, market or limit order?

[newbietrader66]

good morning.

have started paper trading with the TC2000 software.

1. with regard to entering trades (momentum type intraday trades, stocks) i see i can
get filled fairly fast by entering as a "market" buy, but i see from slippage many times
i am overpaying a bit. A limited add doesn't get me filled very fast, and by the time i
do get filled it could possibly be too late.

what is the best technique to prevent this? for example a "limited" buy with a "0"---
would this get me filled almost as fast at my specific price point?

2. let's say i enter a trade and it gives a good upward spike. So i want to add shares. Let's
say i entered the trade, it is making $, i have a tight stop on it which i can manually adjust
with this software, so if i add another 500 (or 5000 shares), can the initial stop i have in
place control all adds, or do i need to create a new stop for each add?

(i'm hopeful that i can control and save any gains with only my initial stop i placed with
my 100 share buy)

thanks for any insight.

 

[piphoe]

Every trade I take I place one tick below the NBBO. i want to feel good about the trade right from the start.

i beat them for a tick already.

pays for my commish too

 

[pstrusi]

1. It could depend on market speed and volatility. If you're or will be in furious fast and volatile market and your intention is to ride the momentum, perhaps market orders will have more chance to get filled and don't miss a good trade. Despite the slipagge the momentum could compensate any slipagge. In the contrary, a slow market or with low volatility it makes more sense using the limit orders. Obviously the point here is that Market phase could change without any warning, so be aware if you're trading manual.

2. Perhaps is a good situation for trailing orders, These are orders that have a "relative" stop price that goes with your trend and it it suddenly changes the trend against you, this order will take your profits. I suggest you to read more about them.