Bracket Order (OCO)

A bracket order is an entry order with a stop-loss and a take-profit attached. When the entry fills, the stop-loss and take-profit activate as an OCO (one-cancels-other) pair: whichever leg hits first executes and cancels the other. Brackets remove the requirement to manually attach exits after entry fills, which means your trade has defined risk from the moment of execution rather than from the moment you remember to set the stop.

Why brackets matter

The biggest gap between paper trading and real trading is the human in the loop. In paper trading, you can sit and watch the entry fill, then carefully place the stop. In real trading, the entry fills while you are away from the screen, the price runs against you, and you arrive 20 minutes later to a position that is already past the level where the stop should have been. Brackets eliminate this failure mode: the stop is part of the entry, activates automatically on fill, and runs continuously until one of the two exit legs executes.

How brackets work on Hex37

When you toggle the bracket option on the order form, the trade workspace displays inputs for take-profit price and stop-loss price alongside the entry. The position sizer calculates contract size from the stop-loss distance and your risk percent, the same as a non-bracket order. When you place the order, the entry sits in the order book; the bracket children sit in a pending state. The instant the entry fills (fully or partially), Hex37 activates the OCO pair. When either the take-profit or the stop-loss triggers, the other cancels automatically. The pair survives reconnections, browser closures, and platform restarts.

Bracket orders and partial fills

If your entry fills partially (say 50% of intended size at the limit price, then the price moves away), the bracket activates on the partial fill at that partial size. If the remainder of the entry later fills, the bracket size grows to match. The take-profit and stop-loss prices stay the same; only the size scales with the fill. A partially-filled bracket position is still fully protected by the stop from the moment the first lot fills.

Common bracket mistakes

• Setting the take-profit at the same R-multiple as the stop without considering whether the chart actually supports the move.
• Bracketing every trade without checking whether the take-profit is realistic. If the take-profit is at a level the price has only reached three times in the past month, the bracket is asymmetric.
• Forgetting that the stop is the trigger, not the exit price. When the stop fires, the position closes at market with realistic slippage; on fast moves the actual close is worse than the trigger.
• Treating brackets as a substitute for thinking. The bracket activates the plan; it does not create the plan.