Trailing Stops

My system uses timed Pivot Points, MACD and 1 hr 15 min and 5 min charts.
The simulator I am using allows setting a Stop Loss, Take Profits, Threshold and Trailing stop in pips values. I work off the 15 min chart and use the 1 hr and 5 min as points of reference only, I have no problem determining when to enter and whether to go long and short, the problem comes in setting the trailing stop, I keep getting stopped out at low but positive pips. I thought the idea of trailing stops was to allow the trade to continue running when it is going your way.

USD/CHF
Stop Loss = 10 pips above/below candle that initiated the trade
Take Profits = 40
Threshold = 20 or half of take profits, I am assuming this is where the stop loss drops and the trailing stop kicks in but how do I determine the
Trailing Stop???

Any ideas?

Maybe my understanding of trailing stops is all wrong, but 5 pips is the only amount I can get to work consistently but then return always comes in between 10 and 15 pips per trade, and trust me I am not complaining but to go further I need to understand what is going on to better set these parameters. While letting these values run on the simulator it will run for long periods of time displaying profits as high as $300 but stopping much lower. I don’t get it, what am I doing wrong? Please note, I can at any time manually stop the order, and I have when the trade is going my way in a major way, but that seems to defeat the purpose of trailing stops.:confused:

Help
Illinois Newbie
Sherry

hi,

what i would do it check with the broker you are using,

I always find that that with a trailing stop that it moves and yeah it does lock in profit, but it does stop you out before the bigger moves occur, i actually stopped using trailing stops and move the stop myself based on lines i draw on the charts,

Its an interesting question, and i hope others will provide suggestions.

N

I agree. Unless you trading system/method is specifically built to use a fixed pip trailing stop, I would make it a manual process to adjust it, not an automatic one. The amount of reasonable swing in the market can change significantly during the course of a trade’s life. My stop strategy is to pick the point where the move I’m in looks to be over.