If you don't use an appropriate stop you can't control your risk. If you do not control your risk you will eventually fail.
I witnessed this several times at a day-trading shop years ago. By the same token, I witnessed "death by a thousand cuts" in my own account after trading small cap futures with tight stops. So, what is the answer ? Answer: Experience and intuition as to where exactly to place the stop.
I guess as luck would have it, no flash crashes have happened since running without 24/7 automation, but if you have to have stops waiting for bar closes works just as well but will require the automation if you're worried about after hours moves. I don't use stop losses and instead use a type of conditional alert on other securities before exiting. If they hit, the market orders are better than alerting the price level itself as what was triggering them.
I have a disdain for reading long messages because time is precious. If someone has to write page long messages to make his point, he doesn't know what he is talking about.
And here you are, wasting your precious time trolling internet forums with your insightful comments... 1 sentence. Was that succinct enough?
Maybe it works for you. Trading wthout stops would never work for me (I daytrade exclusively stocks) Call it psychological, call it whatever you want. But I need the reassurance that I have a net under my feet while trading.. Just my 5c. Best, Happy holidays!
I've just read this entire thread (over several days) and I must say it has been entertaining. My observation is that most people don't read the posts to which they respond. And many posters don't have a clue about what they are doing as traders. To the many who have made me laugh -- thanks, it was fun. To the few who imparted some nuggets of wisdom won over decades -- thanks, it was insightful. Best of trading to you all, may you live long and prosper. p.s. IMHO everyone uses some sort of stop loss. The issue is more a matter of which one works best for you and how do you employ it. That has to do with instrument, time frame, volatility, experience, psychology, account size, etc., etc.
Over at Volente's, the OP has demonstrated this fall how to trade futures without a stop loss: Just "exit" and "roll"