LearnApr 30, 2026

Can I set both stop loss and take profit?

Timothy Cahill

Yes — and you should never enter a trade without doing both. Most brokers let you set both orders on the same position using an OCO (one-cancels-the-other) structure. If price hits your stop, the take-profit cancels automatically. If price hits your target, the stop cancels automatically. No rogue orders floating around. No accidental second position.

This setup is a bracket order. It's the simplest piece of risk structure you can put in place — and it kills most of the mid-trade emotional decisions that wreck accounts.

How the OCO Bracket Setup Actually Works

The flow:

  • You enter long at $50

  • Stop-loss goes at $48 (that's your -1R)

  • Take-profit goes at $54 (+2R)

  • One order triggers → the other cancels itself

The trade resolves on its own. No babysitting the chart. No "let me just slide my stop down a few cents" at 10:47 AM when the candle looks ugly. You lock in the decisions before the emotion shows up.

The version of you doing premarket prep is smarter than the version of you watching a red candle tick against your position. A bracket order makes the smart version win every time.

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