Can the profit trigger for trailing be negative?

[Crw032]

Hi I have a trade setup where I Long and Short ES and MES. Basically I want to know if the trailing trigger can be set at a certain level, or loss. I want to trail the loss after the trade loses $xx amount, or at a certain level. Is this possible?

I know how to setup a trailing stop and have done so. I'm looking to trail the loss. I'm not looking to trail the profitable trade. Basically the strategy is to recognize the profitable trade and then trail the loss.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello Crw032,

I am not sure what you mean by trail a loss, do you mean you want to set a trail stop on one of the positions that you had opened?

[Crw032]

Suppose I have an open trade that has a loss of 50 ticks. I have a stop loss of 100 ticks set. However before that stop loss is reached I believe there may be a favorable short term movement at a certain level. So at a given price level, or number ticks I would like to begin moving my stop up. It is the inverse concept of the auto trail currently in the system.

Said another way, the system has an auto trail function that allows me to set a profit trigger and then begin trailing my stop. Is there an inverse trigger that would allow me to begin trailing a loss? At a certain loss or price point, begin limiting the loss further, i.e. begin raising my existing 100 tick stop.

It went down 50 ticks, then up 25 ticks. I want to set a trigger stating at -50 ticks +25 ticks move stop up from -100 ticks to -50 ticks.

Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello Crw032,

Yes you can do that, you would just use a normal trailing stop for that or use logic to update your existing stoploss. The loss of 50 ticks is not relevant besides it could be used as part of your price condition to later change the order. You would still just be submitting a change to the existing order or using the SetTrailStop which is based on the average fill price.

[Crw032]

Yes I want to set a trail stop, but only after a position has lost a certain number of ticks or at a price level. Currently you can only trigger a trail stop after a certain profit has been made.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello Crw032,

A trailing stop only moves up when in profit, moving an order the opposite direction would lead to further losses or preventing the order from filling. You can submit or change an order to any price you wanted so if you wanted a price condition that enables a trailing stop after an amount of loss you could do that but it will still only trail while moving up in profit.

[Crw032]

For automation would this be done with an OCO order, or would I have to update manually at that level?

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello Crw032,

OCO means one cancels other, that would be to tie two orders together so that when one fills the other cancels. You would have to control order movement with logic.

[Crw032]

Okay, could you please advise on how to do that?

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello Crw032,

That depends on what you have already made. If you are using SetStopLoss you would make a price condition when you want to change the order and then call SetStopLoss again to update it. SetTrailStop works the same way, if you want to update its trailing logic to a new price you would call it again with new values. The set methods are based on the entry fill price so you would have to specify a new offset that is the amount you want from the entry price. SetStopLoss specifically can also use a price that you calculate, you can specify a price with that type of order to have exact placement at a certain price.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/setstoploss.htm?zoom_highlightsub=setstoploss

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/setprofittarget.htm?zoom_highlightsub=setprofit

To find the average price you can use Position.AveragePrice: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...position.avera

[PeterSt]

Hello Crw032,

Yes you can do that, you would just use a normal trailing stop for that [...]

The key is in that phrase. The remainder seems to be talking passed each other.
Crw032, envision this logic : Right from the start you put that very normal trailing as if you were in profit. It is set at the start-trailing price of your original SL. You can do it later too (when in a certain amount of loss) but for understanding it is better to do it right away. When now some profit occurs, your virtual SL will move up. At some stage the price may go the other direction, and meanwhile your "SL" creeped up and it gets hit and you're out (with a loss).
So far so good, but not exactly what you wanted.

Now change this logic into activating it when you are close to the original SL as per your ideas.
It is still a normal trailing but it now does what you want, right ? And you may even end up with profit after all.