Can you make the take profit a stop loss?

Beginner Questions
1

Hey guys
Just learning the basics here and playing around with a demo account and this got me thinking,
is there a way of making your take profit become a stop loss so it allows your profit to become higher if the market goes that way but it will also cash you out at your desired profit if drops back down after passing your take profit?

2

You can do 2 things here;
When you open the trade set a stop loss where your money management says your maximum loss would be, and set a trailing stop to kick in once your trade moves into some profit…
Or
Place your initial stop loss when you open the trade and move it as your trade moves into profit-this is my own preferred way as manually moving the stop allows me to place it on the right side of S&R lines, whereas a trailing stop can’t do this so can leave you more exposed

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3

If price hits your TP, it closes. If price hits your Stoploss, it closes. If you want to stop a trade, while in profit, you close it. If you think it will go further then your TakeProfit, attach the TRAIL STOP to the trade, and adjust your TP further then anticipated. The trail will follow price till it retracts or hits your Trail stop, which, is actually the stop loss, it just adjusts as the trade continues. You can set it from 1.5 pips, to what ever you want it to be.

But remember, if it hits the trail stop, your trade is closed. A good way is to use the trail AFTER it surpasses your OG TP,

Hope that helped, its all i could come up with from your question.

4

Yes, there is … but it’s going to entail using something like NinjaTrader’s “advanced trade management” function, if you want to set it all up in advance at the time of entering the trade (other [I]good[/I] trading platforms also have equivalents).

Some people set up their trades so that on the price touching their initial target, a proportion of the trade closes and the stop-loss on the remaining part also moves to whatever level you’ve specified. (You wouldn’t want it to move to exactly [I]that same level[/I], probably, [I]at that point[/I], as that would leave you with a terribly tiny S-L on the remainder - but the principle’s the same).

(Personally, I’d advise you [I][U]not[/U][/I] to use any [U]automated trailing[/U] stops-losses, at any point of your trades, for all the reasons offered here, among others, but to trail them manually - if at all - e.g. in the way mentioned above by Carlos, which is what I routinely do, myself.)

5

Hi Johndahon94
hey mate, i see a lot of comments here that (i think) might seem complex to you.
so, let me try and give another perspective on this.

who am i: well… i WAS a newbie around 5 years ago.
and (whether you believe this or not, because it will sound like BS) i’m trading successfully these days.

i’ve learned a lot and i’ve blown around $14,000 to learn it,
i’m now making a hell of a lot more, and the $14k doesn’t really matter anymore
but, point is I’ve learned a lot and IT’S WORKING

here is what i have to say to you

  1. if we take your statement litereally,
    "can you make T/P (take Profit) a S/L (Stop loss)"
    the answer is… No, you can’t.
    and it has to do with the scripting of the platform and how the program runs.

but… thats not what you are really asking , is it
so… for now, Just understand,
you can’t literally take the T/P and on the fly, convert it to a S/L… ok

  1. but… you can do this
    let’s say you’re trading a currency pair… doesn’t matter which one.
    now let’s say your trade is setup like this
    assume it’s a bearish trade (so… that means, YOU THINK IT WILL DECREASE IN VALUE, … AKA GO DOWN)
    let’s say you want to profit 30 pips
    and let’s say you want to risk 50 pips
    i won’t get into lot sizes, assume whatever you want,

so…

You set your STOP LOSS here at 1.1450

you enter here… AT 1.1400

you set your TAKE PROFIT here at 1.1370

Make sense so far…? good
this is your TRADE PLAN or your SETUP

at this point YOU CAN LOSE MONEY, up to your stop loss of 50 pips
and you DO HAVE A CERTAIN RISK

but… if you do this, YOU HAVE NO RISK

so let’s say now that the price is currently at 1.1390

so…

You set your STOP LOSS here at 1.1450

you enter here… AT 1.1400

PRICE IS CURRENTLY HERE…1.1390

you set your TAKE PROFIT here at 1.1370

now. if you drag your STOP LOSS DOWN to be at 1.1395
IT IS NOW IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO LOSE ANY MONEY

because here is the only 3 things that can happen

Thing 1 : the price goes down to hit your Take Profit and you win 30 Pips
thing 2 : Price comes back up and hits your Stop loss, but… it’s ok, because YOU PROFIT 5 PIPS anyway.
thing 3. the price just hangs between 1.1395 and your take profit and doesn’t hit anything,
in which case, YOU’RE GOOD, just wait until it hits something and you’ll win the trade

NOW… FURTHER TO THAT
if you’re asking,
“Yeah… martin, but what if i want it to go lower than 1.1370” ??

ok mate. well, then
here are a few things you need to know

  1. You should have planned your trade better
  2. IN MY EXPERIENCE… ALWAYS PLAN YOUR TRADES, before you place them… ALWAYS.
    Now… if you realize that you should have put a take profit of more pips.
    well then… YOU LEARN FOR NEXT TIME to plan it better

but there’s another way as well.
now… don’t get used to getting greedy, because it’s not good.

but, to answer your question

you could do this

so, in the first example, we assumed the following

You set your STOP LOSS here at 1.1450

you enter here… AT 1.1400

-----------JUST BEFORE PRICE HITS THE T/P LINE, DRAG THE STOP LOSS TO HERE-------------
you set your TAKE PROFIT here at 1.1370

-------------THEN DRAG YOUR TAKE PROFIT DOWN TO THIS LINE-----------------------------
(let’s assume this is 50 pips lower

so now what you have is this

you entered at 1.1400
you re defined your stop loss to go from a profit of 5 pips to a profit of around 28 pips
you also redefined your take profit to go from a profit of 30 pips to a profit of 80 pips

and you can just keep dragging the take profit and the stop loss lines up or down as necessary

because, at this point, YOU’RE IN A WINNING TRADE, there is 0% chance of loss

BUT… LISTEN CAREFULLY HERE
some people will tell you… USE A TRAILING STOP…

No mate, do not do that ok
because the Markets will hit it and then go down further and you’ll be like “Holy crap, stupid thing, why did it do that”

as a general rule, if you are going to MANAULLY TRAIL A STOP LOSS
do this

Enter at a certain price

when price gets 20 pips in profit, PUT THE STOP LOSS LINE… 3 PIPS IN PROFIT, but no more
now.
if the price drops to 30 pips in profit, PUT YOUR STOP LOSS AT 10 PIPS IN PROFIT
now
if the price drops another 20 pips, PUT YOUR STOP LOSS at 20 pips in profit (not 30)
(the idea here is… You’re giving the trade… room to breath and room to move up and down )

30-40 pips is a nice breathing space for a trade
less than 20, and you can expect to get stopped out

so if you’re looking to ride a profitable wave that runs like 150 -300 pips and trail the stop all the way.
my advice
give the trade room to move

i would also say that when you’re 80 pips in profit (with your stop loss)
let the trade have around 50 pips breathing space

beyond that,

for every 10 pips it drops below the 50 pips breathing space, drop your stop Loss another 10 as well.

does that help you at all ?
let me know
thanks

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6

oh… one last thing mate
i almost forgot

you have PENDING ORDERS
they are pretty cool

but first , learn what they are
it’s weird at first, but its not really hard

here’s a brief run down of it

you use Pending orders when you know a price is going to hit a certain point and you want the trade to automatically start when it hits that point

but, you also set it up with a stop loss and take profit as well.

there are 4 types of pending orders, also called Limit orders

BUY LIMIT
SELL LIMIT
BUY STOP
SELL STOP

let’s look at these 2 first

BUY LIMIT
SELL LIMIT

all of these have definitions, feel free to google them, but, honestly they are boring and confusing.

so let’s do this

BUY LIMIT
SO… lets say that the current price is at LINE 1
and let’s say YOU RECKON PRICE IS GOING UP (so… You want to BUY)
but, you don’t think it’s a good place to buy right now, because you think price will first go down,
but, ultimately it’s going to go up by like 200 pips and you want to ride that wave all the way.

so… you want to put in a BUY LIMIT
which means

you set your PRICE (Entry) at Line 3
you set your stop loss somewhere below Line 3 (Wherever you want)
you set your take profit at line 2 or above it , (Wherever you want)

this means,
WHEN PRICE HITS LINE 3… the trade is on
if it goes below line 3 and hits your STOP LOSS, you’re out
if it hits your take profit, you win

but you can put the order on whenever you want and walk away

------------------------------------------------------- 2

------------------------------------------------------- 1

--------------------------------------------------------3

so… A SELL LIMIT is the opposite
so… if you think that price is going to go DOWN (so. you want to sell)
and… price is currently at LINE 1
but you want to wait until price gets to line 2. so that it dumps in really big way and you profit
big time

you want to put a SELL LIMIT
you want your entry price at LINE 2
Your take profit goes below LINE 3 or on it
your stop loss is somewhere above LINE 2

got that

------------------------------------------------------- 2

------------------------------------------------------- 1

--------------------------------------------------------3

so… A BUY LIMIT means… price will GO DOWN and hit a point and then TURN AROUND and GO BACK UP (hence the BUY part of it)

and a SELL LIMIT means… price will GO UP first, and then hit a point and then TURN AROUND and
GO DOWN

so notice the turn around part of it. that’s the LIMIT part

now…

BUY STOP and SELL STOP

ok, there’s no turning around here THAT’S THE STOP PART OF IT

so… BUY STOP
let’s say price is at line 3, BUT YOU THINK IT COULD STILL GO DOWN, but you say to yourself
"Until it gets to line 1, i’m not convinced it will go up, BUT, IF IT GETS TO LINE 1. it will definitely go up
and keep going"

IN THAT SITUATION
you take a buy stop
you set the price at LINE 1, (Even though it’s currently at Line 3)
you set your take profit at Line 2 or higher
you set your stop loss at Line 3

so… when it hits line 1, IT WILL BUY and you will win if it keeps going up
(Compared to a Buy Limit, which would have hit the line and turned around, this… does not turn
around, it just keeps going up)

------------------------------------------------------- 2

------------------------------------------------------- 1

--------------------------------------------------------3

so… SELL STOP is just the opposite
basically, if price is at LINE 2
and you think it could go up, BUT, IF IT HITS LINE 1, it will certainly go down

then you pop on a SELL STOP
you put the entry price at LINE 1 (Even though current price is at LINE 2)
you set the take profit for line 3 or lower
you set the stop loss for line 2

------------------------------------------------------- 2

------------------------------------------------------- 1

--------------------------------------------------------3

and… Vuola
that’s LIMIT ORDERS IN A NUTSHELL

it took me like 6 months to wrap my head around this hehe

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7

Hi Carlos
Actually i have the one trading strategy that will every time hehe

Put your entry and S/L and T/P where Chuck Norris puts his.

no need to draw Support and Resistance lines
no need for EA’s or Indicators.

because Price Action does not move according to what the market is doing
PRICE ACTIONS MOVES WHERE CHUCK NORRIS TELLS IT TO MOVE hehe

Nice Photo dude

1 Like
8

When you place Take profit it hit and position closed .It can not bring you more profit even market goes higher. If you want more profit you have to monitor trading your self without using TP . In this way you can handle loss ans profit at your will.

9

Be honest on your stop loss and take profit positions, don’t modified your SL and TP positions when your trade is running! Yes, in my 1st 6 months of live trading I faced this kind of irritating moment but now I am following a different strategy, it’s called buffering strategy! Actually, I set my SL and TP positions 8-12 pips high or low according to the relevant time frames, as a result now I get my TPs so nicely!

10

Hi Johndahon94… a few months late but … follow Martin K’s posts throughout the whole forum… this guy really knows his stuff.

11

yeah, a few months late hehe

yeah… true
this guy also knows how to write posts so long that piss people off hehe

I’m working on it hehe

12

I had this same question about how to manage my stop loss, and I was looking for a way for my stop loss to adjust every time a take profit level was hit. I’ve tried a lot of Expert Advisors out there but they were either too complicated or didn’t do what I wanted.

I would just manually adjust my stop loss when a target was reached, but I wasn’t always in front of my terminal to do so, and that sucked.

Anyway, I was able to find and test out and use an EA called “Auto Trailing Stop by TP Percentage with Profit Lock.” So far, it’s been working great. I set up my take profit point and then split it up into 4 parts (although you can set it up in different ways). When one level is hit, the stop loss adjusts. When the next level hits, the stop loss adjusts up a level, and so on. If 100% of your target is hit, then a trailing stop is activated which will follow price action until it gets stopped out.

Really been liking it so far because it’s locked in my profit on trades that turn against me but still maximizing the winners.

Hopefully this helps others like it helped me, because I’m telling you, I was starting to lose my mind trying to find something and I’m not a coder, so…

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