Trailing stop trigger

[rainmonkey]

Hi, I recently switched over to NT8 - I used to use Schwab's StreetSmart Edge.
I'm trying to set up a SL/TP strategy like this:
1. Buy 2 contracts A&B
2. For contract A, SL at -4 ticks, TP at +7 ticks
3. For contract B, SL at -4 ticks, TP at +14 ticks or no TP
4. Assuming the underlying moves in my favor, and contract A hits a take profit at +7 and exits, I'd like contract B to switch to a Trailing stop of -4 ticks.

I tried playing with the ATM and Custom stop strategy but I can't get it to work right.
I put:
Target 1 as SL/TP -4/+7
Target 2 as SL/TP -4/+14 then the Custom stop as:

Auto Trail 1 step Stop Loss 5, Profit Trigger 14, Frequency 1

This doesn't "activate" the trailing stop.


Any suggestions on this? Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_AlanS]

Hello rainmonkey,

Thanks for writing in.

If your stop loss is set for 4 ticks away from your entry and you are setting the auto trailing behavior to kick in at 5 ticks, then you would never see this behavior occur because the stop loss order would be filled before it could occur.

You need to ensure that the auto trail value is less than the stop loss value to see the auto trail behavior occur.

Please let me know if i may be of any further assistance.

[rainmonkey]

Hello rainmonkey,

Thanks for writing in.

If your stop loss is set for 4 ticks away from your entry and you are setting the auto trailing behavior to kick in at 5 ticks, then you would never see this behavior occur because the stop loss order would be filled before it could occur.

You need to ensure that the auto trail value is less than the stop loss value to see the auto trail behavior occur.

Please let me know if i may be of any further assistance.

Sorry, that 5 is a typo, it's 4.

Also, the trailing stop doesn't kick in (I don't see the stop line on the chart moving) after hitting a profit of 8 ticks.

[NinjaTrader_AlanS]

Hello rainmonkey,

I was referring to the incorrect values in my first reply - to clarify, the issue is with the auto trail on the first target being set to a profit trigger of 14 when the profit trigger is 14, while the second target has the issue of having the same value as the profit trigger, so the behavior wouldn't kick on either target. Ensure the profit trigger value is less than your profit target value to see the stop loss behavior occur.

If you want it to occur when you hit 8 ticks of profit, change the value on the second target to 8.