Know How to Fix a Stop Loss While Trading? | Angel One (2024)

FAQs

Know How to Fix a Stop Loss While Trading? | Angel One? ›

The historical movement of the asset and its financial market is also a good indication of where to set your stop-loss. If you're intending to go long, the stop-loss should be placed below the market price, or it should be placed above the market price if going short.

The historical movement of the asset and its financial market is also a good indication of where to set your stop-loss. If you're intending to go long, the stop-loss should be placed below the market price, or it should be placed above the market price if going short.

When you use a stop loss order properly you can minimize your risk and stay in the industry for the long haul. If you are using a stop loss order incorrectly you will find that it is always getting hit, then the trade reverses and moves immediately back in your direction.

During a gap in the market, you may lose more than your initial stop, but please keep in mind that the trade was closed at the best possible rate. This also applies when there is a market gap and you gained more than your initial limit target.

In case of extremely less volume, where there are not enough buyers and sellers (referred to as an illiquid contract), the Stop Loss will not be executed as the stock may not have enough buyers/sellers at a defined stop-loss limit price by you for the order to be executed which is also known as 'Market depth'.

There are no hard-and-fast rules for the level at which stops should be placed; it totally depends on your individual investing style. An active trader might use a 5% level, while a long-term investor might choose 15% or more.

Stop-loss formula for sell trades: The stop loss price = opening price + (stop loss size (in currency units)/price of one pip). The value of one pip depends on two things: the trade volume, i.e., the lot size you trade.

Risking 1% or less per trade is the standard for most professional traders. For day traders and swing traders, the 1% risk rule means you use as much capital as required to initiate a trade, but your stop loss placement protects you from losing more than 1% of your account if the trade goes against you.

The golden rule of Stop Losses is that they should never be moved away from the market once the trade is opened. If a trader feels that their stop loss is incorrectly placed, they are recognising that the foundations of their trade are incorrect and therefore they should close out.

Do big traders use stop-loss? ›

One of the main reasons professional traders don't use hard stop losses is because they use mental stops instead. The advantage of this is that you don't have to 'give away' where your stop loss is by placing it in the market.

To make money in stocks, you must protect the money you already have. That brings us to the cardinal rule of selling. Always sell a stock it if falls 7%-8% below what you paid for it. This basic principle helps you always cap your potential downside.

Poor Risk Management

Traders who fail to set and adhere to stop-loss orders or those who over-leverage their positions can suffer significant losses when the market moves against them. Using stop-loss orders can assist investors in controlling emotions and preventing hasty decisions driven by fear or greed.

Orders can get rejected due to multiple reasons including insufficient margin, incorrect use of order type, stock not available for trading, etc.

For example, you may have a few orders that are making losses, leading to the account balance being completely exhausted, resulting in a stop out. In such a situation, the trading account balance in the trading platform will show 0, but the PA (if not yet updated) may show your past balance.