Hey guys
Was wondering, how do i place a Trailing SL at specific point. Let say i sell at 1000 and want a trailing SL to start at 500, where it then moves 100 down every time we move 100?¨
Theis
It depends entirely on what software you’re using.
If you use something sensible and flexible, like Sierra Chart or NinjaTrader, you can set it to move down “x” pips every time the price moves down “x” pips, where “x” is any number you like (including 100, if you want).
In some platforms, it will automatically move down 1 pip every time the price moves down 1 pip, as a default setting. (With worse overall results, typically.)
Your trading platform will do whatever you tell it to do, with your stop-loss, provided you have one that has that functionality built in.
Note, though, that it’s extremely unlikely - however you set it - that any automated trailing stop of this kind will perform as well, overall, as the results you’ll get by trailing your stop-loss manually just above each swing-high or just below each swing-low.
Automated trailing stop-losses appear very attractive and appealing, but in reality their results are almost never going to compare favourably with various other methods. Most of their “benefit” is just “ease of use”, really. I wouldn’t use one at all, myself. But that’s just my opinion for my trading, which doesn’t matter much. What matters is for you to learn how to TEST it for yourself and see whether or not you agree, for your trading.
2 Likes
okay thanks for the anwser 
I use MT4 atm, not sure if it can do that smart thing
It just have to start after 500 point and then move 100 point down
cause it cant sit and watch all the trades during nightime and then move my SL -
I think it would probably be a really big mistake to ASSUME that using an automated stop overnight will work out better in the long run than just leaving a fixed stop-loss above or below a recent swing high or low.
You can try it, of course, if it feels right to you, but the price you’ll sometimes pay for it is that it will take you out of trades by just a few pips, which would have developed really well for you when the retracement that hits the stop-loss is corrected and the trend resumes in the direction of your trade.
The difficulty with doing this is that some or many of the trades which you’re taken out of would have been really profitable if you hadn’t used the automated stop loss.
Personally, I’d find that very worrying indeed.
20% of my trades tend to produce 80% of my profits, over the long run (that’s true of most traders, isn’t it?), and those 20% of trades are just the ones an automated stop-loss would take me out of.
For me, it would probably even turn my trading from overall profit into overall loss.
But, again, perhaps that’s just me and my trading.
What matters is for you to learn how to TEST it for yourself and see whether or not you agree, for your trading.
My own guess, however, is that if you test it thoroughly, you’ll decide not to use it (I’m saying that because it’s certainly what’s happened with all the other people I know who have tested it out for themselves).
Generally, the people using this are all the ones who - for whatever reason - haven’t actually tested it properly for themselves.
2 Likes
Im using 4H candels
So therefor my “TP” shall be 500 points and the the trailing stop will kick in and try to take more profit if it can - so my idea is that i already have secured my tp (500) and then im thinking, why not let it run
You’re not making quite the right comparison, there.
You’re comparing “closing the trade with your target hit” and “letting it run with a trailing stop but not risking the target you’ve already hit”.
What you ought to be comparing is “letting it run with a trailing stop but not risking the target you’ve already hit” with “letting it run with a non-trailing stop but not risking the target you’ve already hit”.
In other words, you’re still making guesses and assumptions rather than learning how to test things.
Somehow, for some reason I don’t understand, you’re missing the point Charles has explained a couple of times.
The reason that’s important (to you) is that in the long term, only traders whose orientation is one of “learning how to test things for themselves so that they can use what works best for themselves” ever achieve any lasting success.
1 Like
But that wouldt allow me to set it premade to 500 point and then when it hits there it will be activated, will it?
Yes - it will allow you to do things as simple as that and many other much more complicated things too (if you want to).
2 Likes