Stop Loss and Take Profit orders are automatic features available on both the xStation and MT4 trading platforms to close trades when prices hit specific levels that you set. Find out how to make the best of stop loss and take profit orders in this short and comprehensive article.
- Stop Loss and Take Profit orders are automatic features available on both the xStation and MT4 trading platforms to close trades when prices hit specific levels that you set.
- Stop Losses are an important part of managing your trading risk.
- Take Profit orders are an excellent way to ensure you lock in profits if prices hit your price targets.
- Both Stop Loss and Take Profit orders are executed automatically by our systems - so you don’t need to manually monitor prices to execute the orders yourself.
- XTB’s trading calculator, available on the xStation platform, may help you in choosing the Stop Loss and Take Profit levels suited to your style of trading and approach to risk.
How to place Stop Loss & Take Profit orders
There are various ways of setting Stop Loss and Take Profit orders in the xStation trading platform, but the most detailed method can be applied in the order window with the help of the inbuilt trader’s calculator.
Source: xStation
After choosing the market, volume and direction of the trade you can set a Stop Loss and Take Profit order based on one of a number of figures such as:
- A chosen market price level, i.e. 1.1320
- Number of pips moved, i.e. 80 pips
- A profit or loss value, i.e. £550
- A risk or reward percentage compared to the capital in your account, i.e. 15%
In the example above, a 20 pip Stop Loss has been set on EUR/USD market with a 1 lot buy transaction.
In this example, a Stop Loss order has been set on the level of 1.11473 and if the price reaches the Stop Loss level, you would be closed out of the trade automatically at a loss of £151.16, which is 0.15% of the whole invested capital.
Depending on your approach to risk you can set orders that suit your needs without the necessity of making manual calculations. The same method applies to the Take Profit order where you can set the ticket to close your position at a profit once your desired level has been reached.
Additionally, if you did not set a Stop Loss or Take Profit order when placing a trade, you can still modify its conditions. In order to do so, simply find the trade in your ‘Open Positions’ tab.
Source: xStation
Once you’ve found the position you’d like to modify, look across to the SL (Stop Loss) or TP (Take Profit) columns and depending on the order you would like to apply, press the + button. After doing so, you are able to set the order based on the price, pips or the monetary value.
Source: xStation
