Dec 07 2020

Trailing Stop Order - What is it and How to Use it?
A trailing stop order is a dynamic stop order that maintains a pre-set maximum distance from the current price as long as it moves in the trader’s favour.
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By Stefano Treviso , Updated on: Oct 19 2022.
Table of Contents:
A Stop-Loss Order is a trading order created to automatically limit a trader’s loss when prices go against his trade. A good example would be if you bought shares at a price of $10 and immediately closed your platform and went for a drive. If you previously set a stop-loss order at $8 then, your trading platform will automatically execute your stop-loss and take you out of that trade if that price is reached.
Stop-Loss orders work exactly like market orders, meaning that they will get executed at the available prices, which can be a surprise for inexperienced traders, here’s why:
Suppose that you bought 100 AAPL (Apple) shares at a price of $50. Immediately after buying you placed a stop-loss order at $45.
Clearly, your intention in this example was not losing more than $500, that’s why you set your stop-loss $5 below the purchase price.
Great, now you decided to go for a walk without your phone or any way to access your trading platform and while you’re enjoying yourself, turns out that the price of the reached your stop loss trigger.
The most logical scenario is assuming that you can lose in the worst case $500, but this is not true. You could lose even more due to price availability.
Imagine that in the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) the available AAPL shares at each price level are the following:
In the EXACT MOMENT that your stop-loss order becomes triggered, it will begin to consume the available shares at the available prices to take you out of your position.
That’s exactly how market orders work, you’re buying or selling at the available MARKET PRICES.
Going back to our first example, now you can see that your total loss is more than $500.
In order to get out of those 100 Shares of AAPL, you paid 3 different prices: $45, $44.5 and $44.
Meaning that your total loss is: $550.
Here's a visual example of the availability problem when a stop-loss order gets executed:
I’ve heard so many cases of traders complaining about their stop-loss execution because they thought that the number they set for a maximum loss is written in stone and guaranteed.
Now you know that this is not the case and any sudden market movements caused by extreme volatility can alter your plans, SPECIALLY if you trade assets that have low liquidity like penny stocks or exotic currency pairs.
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There are several approaches to set a stop-loss order, the most common are:
Instead of having a universal convention on how to set a stop-loss order in every trading platform, nowadays they’re all trying to be special and naming it differently, but in the end, it’s just a stop-loss order, all you need to do is remember that it works like a market order regardless of how they want to call it.
Here’s an example of how a window to set a stop-loss looks in one of our preferred trading platforms:
And if you were to click on the option that says amount, it will open the small panel with 3 choices of how you want to calculate that stop-loss.
In the end, regardless of the type of calculation you use, a stop-loss is a stop-loss. It will always work like a market order.
The possibility to calculate it using different measures is used for particular situations such as when you care if the asset hits a particular symbolic price level.
It's all up to your taste.
The main advantages of a stop-loss order are:
The main disadvantages of a stop-loss order are:
Objectively speaking, if you were to create an amazing and well crafted risk management plan along with timing perfect entries and exits to your trades, then stop-losses present very little to no disadvantage to your trading.
Most of the problems when using stop-losses arise from using it with the wrong trading styles and lack of knowledge combined with incorrect settings which we’ll mention at the end of this article.
In the image above you can see one of the most funny stop-loss scenarios. When you set a stop-loss and the asset’s price literally goes down and touches your stop-loss, you lose your trade and then it continues in the exact direction you wanted right from the start.
Again, we can’t stress this enough, it’s all about incorrect placement. A stop-loss by itself can’t have disadvantages, it’s all about how we set it.
Whenever you want to limit your losses and you’re sure that it makes sense to limit that loss based on your trading settings.
The real key to using a stop-loss lies on having a good trade to start with. If you analysed your asset correctly and defined some realistic targets for your stop-loss then it makes sense to use it.
The problem comes when people don’t analyse trades and just go in using their gut or feelings and find themselves in very unpleasant situations, for example:
If you’re scalping (trading on extremely short timeframes) on 10-30 seconds which is something we can consider crazy and full of adrenaline, then setting a stop-loss incorrectly can cause that a short spike of the price in the wrong direction triggers your stop-loss and the worst part is that probably the price will go back were you wanted right after triggering your stop-loss.
These are the most common mistakes when using a stop-loss:
To finalise this guide, let’s talk about that last point.
The markets have an evil nature by default, in order to make money, you have to take it from someone else’s hand (someone has got to lose, right?).
So if you understand how stock prices are determined, put yourself in the shoes of a massive WHALE trader with the ability to even move the markets through his trading platform.
He needs liquidity to execute his tactics, so if he wants to move prices he’ll aim at wiping an area were rookie stop-losses are concentrated in order to clean that level and make money easily by driving the price wherever he wants.
Remember, when it comes to trading, the more evil you think, the better.
Good luck.
Dec 07 2020
A trailing stop order is a dynamic stop order that maintains a pre-set maximum distance from the current price as long as it moves in the trader’s favour.
Dec 06 2020
A stop order is a market order to buy or sell that gets executed once an asset reaches a specific stop price defined by the trader.
Dec 05 2020
A Market Order is an instruction to instantly buy or sell an asset at the best price available at the moment. Market Orders never guarantee a specific price.
Dec 03 2020
A Limit Order is a trading order created to automatically buy or sell an asset only at a specific price or better. Limit orders don’t guarantee execution.