Thinkorswim doesn't allow me to scale out (take partial profits) when I have a stop order in place. For example, if 100% of my position has a stop loss set for -1R, it won't let me sell 50% of my position at +1R. It thinks I want to short sell the stock. I have to cancel the stop loss in order to scale out. Is there a way I can sell part of my position with a full stop loss in place?
I'm not sure there is a way to do it with the interface they provide; I really wish there was an easy way. I don't know if ToS has this, and if they do I'm not sure it would give you what you want, but do they have "One Cancels Other (OCO)" orders? If so, maybe you could set up something like Order 1 = Sell half at +1R and Sell half at -1R, Order 2 = Sell all at -1R. If Order 1 starts triggering then Order 2 gets cancelled? The other way that you might have more luck with, if you can program an order in ToS like do they allow algorithmic trading? This goes beyond their simple interface, but we know their simple interface is lacking.
I was just messing around in the platform and I was able to do what I requested in my initial post. But I was trading earlier today and I wasn't able to do it. It was telling me that I couldn't short sell. I'm not sure what caused the error but I don't recall doing anything differently. Oh well. For anyone curious, you can set the stop loss in active trader by clicking the price in the "ask size" column (below the entrance price), and then chose the sell limit orders by adjusting the share size and clicking the prices you want to scale out at in the same "ask size" column but above the entrance price. You can also choose OCO or trigger w/bracket orders to set all the levels at once.
