Hey,
Picture this.
You place a trade. You put a stop-loss under it. You go to sleep.
Overnight a headline hits. The stock opens $15 below your stop price. Your order fires.
Where does it fill?
Not at your stop price. At whatever the next available price is — which on a gap open is wherever the stock opened. You planned for a controlled loss. The fill tells a completely different story.
This isn't a rare scenario. It's what happens any morning a headline moves a name hard before the open. And the traders who get hurt aren't the ones who ignored risk — they're the ones who thought a stop-loss order meant a guaranteed exit price.
It doesn't. It means a trigger.
I wrote a free checklist because of this. Rule 1 is called The Floor — a way to fix your maximum loss in dollars before you enter, built into the trade itself, so no gap can make it bigger than what you agreed to.
One number. Decided first. Built in — not bolted on after. Four more checks cover the rest of what most traders skip. Five rules total. Page 14 puts them all on one page to print and keep.
Normally $29.97. Free today.
To Your Success,
Don Kaufman
Former Chief Derivatives Instructor, thinkorswim
P.S. The next time a stock gaps against you — will your number hold? Set it first. Get the checklist here.