Stop-loss is not being honored

 

Hello,


I'm very confused about why my stop-loss is not being honored in certain cases. I've attached a screen shot that shows the problem (I've seen it at least once before this occurrence). The second trade in my list was a sale. I set the stop loss at 1.39583. It's clear that at the time the trade closed out, the price was nowhere near the stop-loss. You can see this from the candle that I marked with "Here" (The stop-loss is marked with the horizontal line). I thought that this might have something to do with the spread, but this is a "Sell" order, which means it should reflect the displayed price, if I understand correctly. Also, the difference between the maximum price in that candle and the stop-loss is larger than the spread of 4 pips). Finally, the actual end-of-trade value was 1.35986, which is 3 pips higher than the stop-loss. This is also bothersome, but I figure could be due to a system delay. Note that this is all on a Forex-demo account.


I'd appreciate any suggestions that you may have.


Thank you,

James



 

JF

> I thought that this might have something to do with the spread

It is

> but this is a "Sell" order, which means it should reflect the displayed price

Yes for opening, but Sells close at the Ask which will be the number of (Spread) pips above the Bid
And quite a few pips if this is EURAUD Asian session..

> Note that this is all on a Forex-demo account

Thats a relief - with a newbie trading 1.00 lots ;)

Good Luck

-BB-

 

Thank you very much for clarifying! Yes, I think I'll be stuck in demo land for a little while. :)

BarrowBoy:

JF

> I thought that this might have something to do with the spread

It is

> but this is a "Sell" order, which means it should reflect the displayed price

Yes for opening, but Sells close at the Ask which will be the number of (Spread) pips above the Bid
And quite a few pips if this is EURAUD Asian session..

> Note that this is all on a Forex-demo account

Thats a relief - with a newbie trading 1.00 lots ;)

Good Luck

-BB-

 
you can have MT4 display the ASK price along with the BID price. its a check box in properties. It will let you see things a bit clearer
 

Buy at the Ask, Sell at the Bid

So for a Sell order, the SL is a buy - triggers at the Ask.

Display the Ask line.

 

Buy Order Opens using the Ask Price and Closes using the Bid price

Sell Order Opens using the Bid Price and Closes using the Ask price.

above is from limitations of an order in the book.