Execution Tactics for Improving Entry or Exit Prices Over Several Days

Summary

This question concerns execution after an investor has already decided to buy or sell a particular instrument. The investor has a short window of several days to seek a better price and will use a market order at the deadline if the trade remains unfilled. The request is for a repeatable method to improve the odds of execution near a favorable price, not for help deciding whether to trade.

The investor proposes choosing a lookback period, calculating a moving average and price dispersion, then placing an order at a selected distance from the average or volatility bands. These are suggestions rather than an evaluated strategy: the document provides no response, market data, performance evidence, or rules for choosing the lookback and order level.

As presented, it is an open question about execution timing and limit-order placement. The proposed indicators alone do not establish that the method will improve realized prices, and the deadline market order creates a trade-off between waiting for price improvement and ensuring execution.

Key ideas

• The trading decision is already made; the problem is how to execute within a short deadline.
• The proposed approach uses moving averages and measures of price dispersion to set limit-order levels.
• The investor accepts a market order at the deadline if the desired trade has not executed.
• The document offers no tested procedure or evidence that the suggested indicators improve execution prices.

Tags

# Best practice to optimize trading price, once I've already decided to sell or buy in next few days


# Best practice to optimize trading price, once I've already decided to sell or buy in next few days












I'm investing in long term. By different means not related to this question, I've already decided that I want to buy or sell a particular instrument, but I'm not in such a hurry:

- I'm still allowing a few days, say 2 to 5, to execute the operation at an optimized price.

- If, at the end of the last day, I was not able to sell or buy the instrument, then I'll simply trade it at market price.

What methods are there to optimize the trading price? I'm looking for something like:

- Use a number of periods (trading days, hours, whatever) based on the volatility, on the weather, on your mood...

- Take the Moving Average (or EMA, or WMA, or whatever) over the number of periods you have to sell (or twice as much, or n as much).

- Measure the standard deviation of the price around the moving average, or use Bollinger bands, or whatever.

- Place a trade order at x% of the standard deviation, or place it just outside, or whatever.

I know I cannot hope to sell at the highest or buy at the lowest price every time. But is there a practice to maximize the probability of being closer to the best price? I also believe that this is not a trick, but a skill to train.

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.