Assuming you're talking about intraday... I think the best is either an ATR based stop, or stop just outside the high/low you are trading off. In my experience if you're having lots of trades that run your stop a bit then turn around and head your way, and assuming the stops are reasonable to start (say not less than 1x ATR on avg), the proper response is to try and get better entries, or filter entries, versus trying to evade the problem by widening stops. It's relatively rare that I get barely clipped out on trades that turn around to work, and when I do, the stoprun usually sets up a second trade/entry. If you place stops based on high/low you do need to have some controls in place to keep your R:R and targets reasonable, like a max allowable stop. As to question 3, it really depends on what scale of move you're looking for. I think the idea of not doing any in-trade money management at all is sub-optimal, and at a certain point it becomes ridiculous to hold your original stop from a risk-reward perspective - e.g. you have a trade that's 19 points to a 20 point target, in which case holding the original 10 point stop would be risking 29 to make 1, which is nuts. But a simple mechanism (like an auto trail or auto breakeven after a given MFE) can help you keep R:R in line as the trade progresses without needing much or any attention from you.
This is the right answer, but getting the math right is a different story. It takes a little mastery and realistic expectation. If you can beat the benchmark at least two-fold on average swing/overnight, and four-fold intraday, you're ahead of the game. For the record, I don't swing trade, though I do have a Long/Short portfolio. I like my sleep.
That's the idea: give you a choice to accept the loss or not. With stop losses, you're out as soon as price hits. How many times do you see candles with crazy wicks as soon as you enter? I am tired of those circumstances. I've used this a couple of times in short term trades where I did not want to be caught on the wrong side for too long. A sort of bonus is once the trade goes in your way, you can keep the insurance around as a potential black swan.
I despise long options, within a momentum trading framework, as they add complexity in the form of theta and vega. It's hard enough to manage risk without those two uncertainties. I'd rather hedge a portfolio with futures if possible. Selling premium, I have no experience with, but I do know most retail traders don't have the capital to implement a high yielding strategy. You need to be this guy:
Active management is a key ingredient to the recipe. Participants in the trading industry, who want to sit on their hands, get taken to the cleaners. Nothing wrong with that by the way, if you just buy the SPY periodically and go about your daily life.
%% Or 20 day moving average; i like a choice. And if they pay dividends i take that into account even if they pay yearly; most do quarterly. Fixed tick would only make sense intraday; the few times i do intraday; i dont do fixed .Most all whipsaws on stuff i trade= main trend has changed= which is a great help/early warning.
I tend to do fixed (but i change that amount to what i feel is appropriate) quite tight stops, with quite a few re -entries....