what happens to your account if there is an emergency when you are incapable of closing trades? NEW YORK (AFP) -- A Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) jet from Brussels landed safely Thursday morning at its scheduled destination of Newark, N.J., after the pilot died during the flight, aviation officials said. Continental Flight 61, a Boeing 777 carrying 247 passengers, landed safely at 11:49 a.m. EDT at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the three major airports serving New York City. The arrival arrived a few minutes before its scheduled noon arrival despite delays of other flights amid fog and rain in the area. Two co-pilots were in control, an official from the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Have a catastrophic stop set on all your trades beyond the 'noise' of the market. 5 or 10 points on the ES perhaps.....something that can safely avoid the market 'noise' yet will ensure your trade can get closed in a crisis such as a MCI at the desk or even if your computer crashes and the market reverses on you while you reboot --- maybe you incur a big loss, but at least it's a loss you hopefully can project in advance and accept as "insurance" against even bigger losses.
I do very little stock or futures trading. Most of my activity is in options, either straight or in spreads. In general options trading is "safest" in terms of having a max risk on each trade. Yes, you can have stops and what-not on stocks and futures. And yes, you can have option positions with unlimited risk (which I never do). But the biggest risk on stocks is overnight gap risk, so stops don't help then. That's an interesting point about losing power or communication with a stock/futures trade open. From what I've heard, guys day trading stock/futures have stops but they're disaster stops that should never really be hit. This is why I like options best. They can be fail-safe if done correctly.
Just lower your leverage until you feel comfortable walking away from your screen for a week even though you will be out only for 1/2 a day.