Mental vs Hard Stop

Mental vs Hard Stop puts the execution question on the chart: same level, different trigger fingers. A generic moving-average cross opens simulated trades and places one shared stop; a resting hard order that fills the instant the level trades then races a mental exit acting only on a close beyond it, backed by a disaster stop further away — the mental vs hard stops debate settled trade by trade in R on the ledger.

How to Trade the Mental vs Hard Stop?

• Hard label: the touch filled the resting order — gaps fill at the open, as real stops do — while the mental side may still hold.
• Sweep markers and Survived: crosses mark bars that pierce the level but close back inside; riding a swept level to the signal exit prints Survived — the mental stop's benefit case.
• Close-out: a close beyond the level is acceptance — the mental exit fills at that close, worse than the level itself: the price of filtering wicks.
• Disaster: the backstop filled because the close-based exit never came — the fast-market tail the hybrid exists to cap.

Mental vs Hard Stop Settings

• Trade Direction (default Long & Short) with Fast MA Length (default 20) and Slow MA Length (default 50): the demo entry engine; the comparison is about exits.
• Placement (default ATR Multiple) with ATR Length (default 14), ATR Multiple (default 2) and Percentage (default 1): where the shared level goes, defining the risk unit R.
• Disaster Backstop (on) with Disaster Distance (R) (default 1): the resting order behind the mental exit.
• Comparison Dashboard (on) with position and size; toggles Event Labels, Sweep Markers and Level / Price Gradient (on), Entry Markers (off).

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Net (Mental − Hard) measure?

The sum across completed trades of the mental exit minus the hard exit, in R. Positive means surviving sweeps outweighed the worse acceptance fills on this chart's history; negative means the resting order was the better tool here — a per-chart record, not a verdict about markets.

Doesn't stop placement matter more than execution?

Placement is a separate question with its own tooling — ATR-based stop distance covers sizing a level to volatility. Here placement is infrastructure: both styles defend the same level however placed, so every divergence comes from execution alone.

What does the simulation deliberately get wrong?

Discipline. It executes every close-based exit without hesitation — precisely where real mental stops break down, migrating at the worst emotional moment. Read the ledger as the mental stop's best case, run by software that never renegotiates.