Risk & Exit Tools

Trailing stops

How trailing stops work in a strategy, the trailing distance, and the three behaviors you can turn on: start after profit, move to break-even, and disable take profit.

A trailing stop follows the price up and holds a set distance below the peak. As price climbs, the stop climbs with it and never moves back down. When price falls back to the stop, the position closes. That lets a winning trade keep running while still protecting the gains it has made.

The trailing stop follows the price up, holding a set distance below the peak, then sells when price falls back to it The stop ratchets up with the price and never moves down. When price pulls back to it, you sell.

A quick example

You buy a stock at $100 and set a 10% trailing stop.
The stock rises to $150. The stop is now at $135, which is 10% below the new high.
The price falls to $140. The stop stays at $135, because it never moves down.
The price keeps falling and hits $135. The position closes, locking in the gain.

Where to set it

The trailing stop lives in the strategy builder, in the Risk step, under Risk Management. The step description reads “Stops, take profit, trailing”. You edit it from your cloud dashboard.

Open the Strategies page and click New strategy, or open an existing strategy and click Edit strategy.
Go to the Risk step in the builder.
In Risk Management, find the Trailing card and enter a distance. Use a percent (for example 5). On Tradier and IBKR you can switch the risk unit to a dollar amount instead.
Click Customize on the Trailing card to open the Trailing stop dialog and turn on a behavior.

The Trailing card is only shown for instruments the engine trails. It is hidden for Crypto and Prediction Markets, and RSA strategies do not have a Risk step at all.

Note

The behaviors are locked until the card has a distance. Set a trailing stop distance first in the Risk Management card, then the behaviors turn on.

The trailing distance

The distance is the core setting. It is how far the stop sits behind the peak. The card helper reads “Exits when price falls this % from the peak” (or the dollar wording when you are in dollar mode). This alone gives you a plain trailing stop with no extra behavior, which the card labels Standard.

Behaviors

Click Customize to open the Trailing stop dialog. Under Behaviors there are three toggle rows. Only one can be on at a time, so turning one on turns the others off. With none of them on, the card shows Standard.

Start after profit

Waits until the trade is up by a chosen amount before the stop begins tracking. Until then the trail stays off, which keeps normal noise near your entry from stopping you out early. Set the trigger in the Start trailing at field.

Use this in a trending market where you want to give the trade room to get going before the stop arms.

Move to break-even

Raises the stop to your entry price once the trade is up by a chosen amount. After that point the trade can no longer turn into a loss. Set the trigger in the Move at field.

Use this in volatile markets, or any time you want to be sure a winner does not turn into a loser.

Disable take profit

Only the trailing stop exits the trade. There is no separate profit target, so the trail fully manages the exit. This row is hidden for Memecoins.

Use this in a strong trend when you want to let the trail run as far as it can instead of capping the exit at a fixed target.

Heads up

With Disable take profit on, the fixed take-profit target is ignored and only the trailing stop closes the trade. That can capture more in a strong trend, but in choppy or reversing markets you may give back more than a fixed take profit would have kept.

When you are done, click Save trailing stop.

Comparing the behaviors

Behavior	Card label	What it does
None	Standard	Stop follows price up at your set distance, with no extra rule.
Start after profit	Start after profit	Holds the trail off until the trade is up by your trigger, then tracks.
Move to break-even	Break-even	Jumps the stop to your entry price once up by your trigger, so it can no longer lose.
Disable take profit	No take profit	Drops the fixed target so only the trail exits the trade.

Coming soon

The dialog also shows a Partial take profit while trailing row, marked Coming soon and not yet enabled. It is designed to close a portion of the position at a target while the rest keeps trailing. It is still under testing.

Good habits

Match the distance to how much the asset normally moves, so normal swings do not stop you out early.
Pair the trailing stop with the rest of your strategy’s rules rather than relying on it alone.
Revisit the distance as conditions change, since a distance that fits a calm market may be too tight in a fast one.