Trailing Stop & Trailing TP Orders

Introduction to Trailing Stop Order

A trailing stop order is a type of strategy order that tracks market prices, allowing users to set orders within a specific percentage or price range from the market price during market fluctuations. When the market reverses (pulls back), the trailing stop order will submit the trader’s preset order to the market.

If you want to know how to use trailing stop order, please refer to How to Set Trailing Stop/Trailing TP Orders.

As the price moves favorably, the trailing stop order adjusts accordingly. As long as the price continues to move in the trader’s favor, the trigger price will also change, ensuring that users lock in profits while continuously benefiting from the market.

Additionally, if the price moves a certain percentage to the opposite side, the trailing stop order allows users to preset a market price order to reduce their position or close it. This helps users limit losses and protect profits by reducing or closing positions in unfavorable situations.

Note that the trailing stop order does not move to the opposite side.

Introduction to Trailing TP Order

The operation principle of a trailing TP order is the same as that of a trailing stop order. It is one of the flexible take-profit and stop-loss (TP/SL) methods provided by Gate for traders.
Trailing TP can only be set after opening a position via the “TP/SL - Trailing TP” option.

Note:

1. When using trailing TP to close a position, carefully calculate the activation price and the pullback rate. Ensure that the trailing TP order, upon activation, results in a profitable exit order. During the subsequent process of tracking market fluctuations and automatically adjusting the trigger price, it will help lock in more profits for you.
2. For long positions, the trailing TP order will be executed as a market sell order, and the activation price you set must be higher than the position’s average entry price or the last price. If no activation price is set, the trailing TP order will be automatically activated based on the last price.
3. For short positions, the trailing TP order will be executed as a market buy order, and the activation price you set must be lower than the position’s average entry price or the last price. If no activation price is set, the trailing TP order will be automatically activated based on the last price.

Main Functions

1. Pullback Rate Settings: You can set the pullback rate as a percentage or fixed price variance. When prices fluctuate favorably, the trigger price adjusts accordingly; when prices pulls back to the preset pullback rate, the system automatically submits a market order.
2. Activation Price Settings: You can choose to set an activation price, which means the trailing stop order will only be activated when the market price reaches this level. If the activation price is not specified, the order will be activated immediately after placement.
   For more details, please refer to How to Set Trailing Stop/Trailing TP Orders.

Applicable Scenario

1. Locking in Profits: When the price of a holding position continues to rise, a trailing stop order helps you automatically lock in profits, preventing missed opportunities during price pullbacks.
2. Limiting Losses: In a declining market, a trailing stop order can protect profits and prevent losses from widening due to sharp price retracements.
3. Capturing Trends: For traders looking to capture market rebounds or trend reversals, a trailing stop order can automatically execute operations at the right moment, eliminating the hassle of frequent manual adjustments.

Examples

• Example 1: User A holds a long position of 1 BTC with an entry price of 50,000 USDT, expecting a market pullback of 5% to be the best exit opportunity. User A sets the activation price of the trailing stop order at 52,000 USDT, with a pullback rate of 5%. When the market price rises to 52,000 USDT and then retraces 5% to 49,400 USDT, the system will automatically close the position at market price.

• Example 2: User B holds a short position of 1 BTC with an entry price of 50,000 USDT, expecting a market pullback of 5% to be the best exit opportunity. User B sets the activation price of the trailing stop order at 48,000 USDT, with a pullback rate of 5%. When the market price falls to 48,000 USDT and then rebounds 5% to 50,400 USDT, the system will automatically close the position at market price.

Notice

1. A trailing stop order will not freeze the margin or lock the position until it is successfully triggered, so please be cautious to avoid having your margin or position occupied by limit orders or regular take-profit and stop-loss (TP/SL) orders.
2. A trailing stop order may not always be successfully triggered; it can fail due to position limits, insufficient margin, or the contract being in a non-trading state. A successfully triggered market order will be treated the same as a regular market order (IOC type), which may not be fully filled. Any unfilled or partially filled market orders will be displayed in the [Order History]- [Limit | Market].
3. If the order is filled, it will close the corresponding position or open a new position based on the amount you submitted. If the order fails, your position and margin will remain intact.
4. The maximum amount for a single trailing stop order may vary between different contracts. (This limit will be adjusted according to market changes.)

Gate reserves the final right to interpret the product.
For further assistance, please visit the Gate official support page or contact our customer support team.