Automating your entries but managing exits manually removes most of the risk control from your system. Learn how OCO exits work in RelayDesk.
A lot of traders automate their entries and then manage exits by hand. They watch the position, decide when to take profit, and place the exit order manually. This keeps a human in the loop, which feels safe, but it introduces the exact kind of inconsistency that automation is supposed to remove.
OCO exits solve this. They let your bot handle both the stop loss and the take profit automatically, as a single linked instruction to your broker.
What OCO means in practice
OCO stands for One Cancels Other. When you place an OCO exit order, you send two orders to your broker simultaneously: one at your stop loss level and one at your take profit level. When either one fills, the broker automatically cancels the other.
Without OCO, if you place a stop and a take profit as separate orders, you risk both filling, or neither filling when you need one. In a fast-moving market, a filled take profit with an open stop that now needs manual cancellation is not automation. It is additional overhead.
Why manual exits undermine automated risk management
When you automate entries but exit manually, you introduce two problems. First, you are not available every time your bot enters a trade. Second, your exit decisions under live market conditions are influenced by the current price, not by the logic you set when you were calm and planning your strategy.
The point of automation is to execute your pre-decided rules. Manual exits during drawdowns are how "I'll wait for it to come back" becomes a loss much larger than your original stop intended.
How RelayDesk's OCO Exit Engine works
When you configure a bot in RelayDesk with a stop loss and take profit, the OCO Exit Engine sends both orders to your broker as a linked pair when the entry fills. Your broker handles the cancellation logic: whichever level hits first closes the position and removes the other order.
You set the levels in bot configuration. Stop loss: the price level or percentage from entry where you want to cut the loss. Take profit: the price level or percentage from entry where you want to take the gain.
RelayDesk calculates the actual order prices from your entry fill price. If you specify a 1% stop and a 2% take profit, those percentages are calculated from the execution price you received, not an estimate.
OCO exits and signal-managed exits are different things
Both exist in RelayDesk, and the distinction matters. OCO exits are broker-level orders. They sit at your broker as standing instructions after your entry fills. They execute automatically even if RelayDesk is temporarily unreachable, because the broker holds them.
Signal-managed exits are RelayDesk-level instructions. They wait for a second signal to arrive (for example, a closing condition from your TradingView strategy) before sending the exit order. This gives you more control over the exit logic based on additional market data, but the exit depends on the signal arriving cleanly.
For most take-profit and stop-loss setups, OCO is the right choice. Signal-managed exits make sense when your exit condition is based on an indicator crossing or a specific market condition, not just a price level.
Setting up OCO exits in your bot
In RelayDesk, go to Bots > [your bot] > Exit Strategy. Enter your stop loss and take profit values. You can specify these as fixed prices, percentages from entry, or dollar amounts, depending on how your strategy defines risk.
Review the configuration against your strategy's actual parameters before activating. An OCO exit configured at the wrong level creates a real order at your broker. The setup takes two minutes; the review is what matters.
