Stop loss using target levels

[rlange]

My trading strategy is pretty simple, but I can't get the stop loss to behave like I want it to. It works like this. Buy 300 shares, set my stop loss for all 300 shares 2 ticks down, set 2 profit targets at 2,4 for 100 shares each. When each profit target is hit, I want the entire stop order to move up to that level. Finally, I manually exit the last 100 shares when I want or when the 4 tick stop loss is hit. Is it possible to setup my stop orders like this with ATM? I know I can do trailing stops against a target, but my profit targets aren't always equal distances apart.

Example:

Buy 300 shares MSFT at 30. 300 shares Stop at 30, Sell 100 shares at 32, Sell 100 shares at 34.

MSFT moves to 32. ATM sells 100 shares. 200 share stop loss moves to 30.

MSFT moves to 34. ATM sells 100 shares. 100 share stop loss moves to 32.

MSFT moves to 39. I manually sell. 100 share stop goes away. ( I can do this myself, I'm more interested in moving the stop loss to recent targets, but it would be cool if NT was smart enough to do this for me)


Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_ChristopherJ]

Hello rlange,

Buy 300 shares MSFT at 30. 300 shares Stop at 30

Unfortunately you would need to select a Stop value lower than your entry price. Please let me know what Stop you would like used so I may further assist.

[NinjaTrader_ChristopherJ]

Were you referring to .30 below your entry price so in this example $27.70?

[rlange]

Sorry Chris, that was a typo. The stop would be 28. My question boils down to, can I get my stop to move up to different levels as my profit targets are reached.

STOP: 28
ENTRY: 30
PROFIT1: 32
PROFIT2: 34

As each profit target is hit, I want the stop to move up to the next level. If price moved to 32.

STOP: 30
PROFIT2: 34

If price moved to 34.

STOP: 32

[NinjaTrader_Cameron]

Hello rlange,

This is Cameron replying on behalf of Chris.

Use the following steps plus the attached screenshot, MSFT.png, to set up your ATM Strategy. For the screenshot, I put a red square around the 3rd target custom strategy to avoid any confusion.

Order Qty: 300

1st Target, Qty: 100, Stop Loss of 200, Profit Target of 200, Stop Strategy: None

2nd Target, Qty: 100, Stop Loss of 200, Profit Target of 400, Stop Strategy: Custom
Auto Breakeven; Profit Trigger of 200, Plus 0. This means, when we reach 200 ticks in profit the Stop Loss will be moved to the entry price. From your example, the stop will be moved from $28.00 to $30.00, 200 ticks.

3rd Target, Qty: 100, Stop Loss of 200, Profit Target of 0 (for you to manually manage), Stop Strategy: Custom

Auto Breakeven; Profit Trigger of 200, Plus 0. This means, when we reach 200 ticks in profit the Stop Loss will be moved to the entry price. From your example, the stop will be moved from $28.00 to $30.00, 200 ticks.

Auto Trail; Stop Loss of 200, Frequency of 999, and Profit Trigger of 400. This means, when we reach 400 ticks in profit the Stop Loss will be moved to 200 ticks behind the market price (From your example $34.00 hit this rule will move your stop loss to $32.00), and a frequency of 999 meaning the Stop Loss will only be moved once for this step

[rlange]

Thank you Cameron that was very helpful.

The only thing I noticed about this strategy is that when testing this against an IB paper trading account, I got charged for 3 orders if the stop was hit first. I'll eat the cost if that's the only way to do this, but I figured I'd ask you if there was some setting I'm missing? It shows up as 3 orders in TWS (100 shares each), it's possible IB is smart enough to consolidate these in my real account, but NT is definitely sending 3, 100 share stop orders to TWS.

[NinjaTrader_Cameron]

rlange,

For us to verify what signal NinjaTrader is sending TWS, we would need to review the Log file with execution time.

To send us the Log file, please send a note to: Support [at] NinjaTrader [dot] com ATTN: Cameron in the subject, and link to the forum in the body. Attach the Log File

The log can be found in (MY) Documents -> NinjaTrader 6.5 (7)-> Log.

Example for today - log.20101117