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Austin, TX
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT8
Trading: EU, SP, Crude CL
Posts: 90 since Jul 2018
Thanks Given: 33
Thanks Received: 105
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The Trailing Stop works well in strategies most of the time, but not always. Here's why:
When manually trading we will sometimes drag the stop near the current price if we think the market run is about to end. We're willing to take profits and reduce the risk of the market turning against us.
But if we drag the stop a little to close to the bid/ask price then Ninjatrader will reject the move. It just won't let you move it that close.
The trailing stop within a strategy can encounter the same type of rejection. There is a delay between a price move in your favor by one tick and the actual trailing stop moving that same tick. If during that delay the price swings back against you then the trailing stop gets into the bid/ask area, generating an error.
Technically, when that error is generated the system knows to do two things:
[1] Exit the trade
[2] Pause the strategy
But it doesn't always exit the trade for some reason. It's a glitch. I've seen it exit the trade like it is supposed to, but far more often it just leaves you hanging.
I've walked away from the computer (in SIM) only to come back to see I'm still in a trade but the strategy is paused. The only way out is to turn on the chart trader (or DOM) and manually get out of the trade.
Bottom line, don't use a trailing stop in a strategy or you will get burned. It's a shame because I'd love to be able to use it.
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