Within your scenario, a "stop market" order becomes a regular market order at the open of trading and is put in line with all the other market orders that are currently waiting to be executed, regardless of how it originated (from a stop order or just placed at the open).

In this way, they really should just be used when you can't be present during market hours as a protective measure. In general, "market orders" are to be avoided whenever possible because they often result in bad fills.

One of the most important aspects of setting good stops is determining strong support and resistance. Stops should only be placed under strong support (in the case of longs) and over strong resistance (in the case of shorts).

In this way, if your stop is hit, you have already decided that you want out of your position because your plan (and your trade) is not going in the "right" direction.

Also, try not to stop out of a trade just because you "got bored" or "scared" or "just didn't want to take that much of a loss." Your original stop should already have taken into account how much you could loose and what an acceptable stop was (i.e. 0.5 to 2% of your account,) so any other stops should never risk more than your original stop.

If you would like to learn more about "stops" in general, just let me know...they are a very important component of consistent profits.

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