MetaTrader 4 - Using a Trailing-Stop

A Trailing Stop can help you to make more profit in fast moving markets!

The market can move very strongly at times due to large trades being done by international banks, fundamentals (= things happening in the world that may have an impact on the markets), fundamental announcements and other factors.

It can move so quickly that it can be difficult to close a trade at the right moment!

The reason is that market may have moved quite a few pips by the time that your order to close reached the trading server, and you will get a re-quote. A Pop-up window will appear on your screen with a message and new price. You will have only a few seconds to respond.

It is possible to get more than one re-quote in a very fast moving market.

You can activate a Trailing Stop in strong moving market conditions, in order to make more profit.

Instructions to activate a trailing stop:

• You can only activate a trailing stop when you have an active trade.

• In the Terminal Window at the bottom of the screen, in the Trade Tab, right-click with the mouse on the active trade (= Blue line). A Pop-up window will appear:

• Select Trailing Stop in the Pop-up window.

• Select the number of pips that the stop must be behind the trade in the next window.

  • The number of pips will be determined by your strategy, money management, the timeframe you are trading on and other factors.

• The trailing stop will only activate when the market has moved this number of pips in a positive direction. In other words, the trailing stop of 15 pips will only activate if your trade is 15 pips in profit.

• For every pip that the market continues to move in the right direction, the trailing stop will follow in the same direction.

Whenever your Stop is past the entry in the right direction

(= above the Buy or below the Sell),

then you are in a Win-win situation!

• When the market retraces, the stop will stay in the same position. It can never retrace!

• The Stop will be activated whenever the market moved 15 pips backwards and the trade will be closed.

Please note:

• The trailing stop works from your computer.

• If you close the Metatrader program, disconnect from the internet or switch off the computer, the trailing stop cannot update anymore!