1) Trading with a pre-set STOP is the most horrible, destructive and the idiocratic thing you can do in trading.
unless the stop is used to reverse the trade, putting buy stops at the highs and sell stops at the lows, a few ticks above and below. The quantity twice the range trade quantity.
What do you mean by a 'pre-set stop'? Is it determined by so many points, % loss of capital, set at HOD/LOD? What exactly do you refer to?
Open Range trade implies you stay long above OR and sell at previous days high, and stay short below OR and buy at previous days low, till it busts it with momo and followthrough. For this kind of pattern you need liquidity and volatility, meaning enough participants.
Having pre-set stops on single trades. Because lets face it.. half of it is noise and there is a higher probability that you're going to get stopped out on any single trade. Know where the market could be headed and guard your position. Not having a STOP works out to the best on those setups that are well-tested and are of high quality.
It's difficult to argue on this subject, some people would not enter into a trade before a stop level is determined others are more flexible but will still use a preset stop based on certain % loss. I suppose the only way I could support your statement is if my portfolio had 100+ stocks.
2) Increase quantity traded as the day progresses? I've found this helps on a number of fronts. The initial indecision or sentiment in the market takes a few minutes to take a foothold, and can lead to choppy trade, as the day progresses a certain theme develops, and probability factors increase. Thus profitibility should increase too. And you become more fluid in your trading and not worried about the initial loss.
now on the otherside... If the trade immediatley goes your way and you get oh say...10% in a very,very short period of time TAKE IT...can it get any better when the COST of time takes away? but then more advanced high velocity traders realize they must have a place for the money. the initial loss.