Stop-loss orders limit the losses on an individual trade. If your trade is losing money and the price reaches the stop loss level, the stop loss will close you out of your position so you do not lose any more.
Standard Stop Loss Order
You can attach a stop loss order to a position by specifying a level in the Stop field on the Deal ticket or on the Order to Open ticket.
Guaranteed Stop Orders
With Guaranteed Stop Orders you can trade safe in the knowledge that, should a market gap through your stop level, you will not suffer any extra losses from the slippage and you will be stopped out at the level you requested.
How To Place A Guaranteed Stop Order
If a market is enabled for Guaranteed Stop Orders then it is possible to place one from the Deal ticket. Simply tick the “Guaranteed Stop” check box and specify how far away you want your Guaranteed Stop Order to be. The system will only allow you to place a Guaranteed Stop Order at least the minimum distance away.
You will be able to identify which type of Order/Stop is allocated to your open positions from within the ‘Open Positions’ tab (in the Market Activity window). The orders that have a Guaranteed Stop Order associated with them will have a YES displayed in the ‘Guaranteed’ column.
How to place a new Order to Open with a Guaranteed Stop
In the same way that you would place a new order you can now choose for your Stop on a new Order to Open to be guaranteed from the Order to Open ticket. Click on the Order button from the interface and click on If Done Orders, select the Guaranteed stop tick box and enter your Stop.
You will be able to identify which type of Order/Stop is allocated to your positions from within the ‘Opening Orders’ tab (in the Market Activity window). The orders that have a Guaranteed Stop Order associated with them will have a YES displayed in the ‘Guaranteed’ column.
Charges
As Guaranteed Stop Orders are a form of insurance against market gaps, they come at a small extra cost. Firstly, there’s a premium you have to pay for selecting your Stop to be guaranteed and secondly, it needs to be placed further away from your entry level than if it was a non-guaranteed Stop. When instructing us to attach a Guaranteed Stop Order to an existing open position, an opening trade, or a new order, we will charge a premium by executing a cash debit to your account. Opting for your Stop to be guaranteed will also recalculate the minimum distance away from your opening trade.
Further details of the premiums and minimum distances can be found by clicking the Market Information icon (
) next to each market to view the Market Info window.
At times, the market being traded will not allow Guaranteed Stop Orders to be placed. During these periods the check box will be displayed but it will be disabled.
Trailing Stops
A trailing stop is a risk management tool that allows you to manage your risk without restricting your potential profit. Trailing stops help to secure your gains as the market moves in your favour, as they automatically track your profitable positions so that you don’t have to continuously monitor your position and move your stop manually.
It has always been possible to move your stop loss order manually if the market has moved in your favour, but now you can set our system to do this automatically for you. A trailing stop can be added when placing a trade by ticking the ‘Set Trailing Stop?’ check box on the deal ticket.
You can also amend an existing stop loss order on an open position and change it to a trailing stop order by clicking on ‘Edit Position’ in the drop down menu next to the relevant trade in the ‘Open Positions’ tab of the Trading Activity window and selecting ‘Set Trailing Stop?’
In either case, when you select a trailing stop you also have to specify the ‘Trailing Step’, which must be greater than 1. If the market then moves in your favour, the trailing stop will move in that direction in the increment size that you have specified.
Please note that minimum distances apply to trailing stops, for more details please refer to the deal or order ticket. Please note that trailing stops are not guaranteed so you may still be subject to slippage in volatile market conditions. It is not possible to have both a trailing stop and a guaranteed stop order. There are no extra charges for selecting a trailing stop loss.
Trailing stops are not available on all markets. If trailing stops are enable for a particular market, the option to ‘Set Trailing Stop?’ will appear on the deal ticket.