Stop Losses are intended for reducing losses when the market moves against your position, but they can help you lock in your profits as well.

While that may sound a bit counterintuitive at first, it’s actually very easy to understand and master.

Let’s say you’ve opened a long position and the market moves in the right direction, making your trade a profitable one at present. Your original Stop Loss, which was placed at a level below your open price, can now be moved to your open price (so you can break even) or above the open price (so you are guaranteed a profit).

To make this process automatic, you can use a Trailing Stop. This can be a useful tool for your risk management, particularly when price changes are rapid or when you’re unable to constantly monitor the market.

As soon as the position turns profitable, your Trailing Stop will follow the price automatically, maintaining the previously established distance.

Following the example above, please bear in mind, however, that your trade needs to be running a profit large enough for the Trailing Stop to move above your open price, before your profit can be guaranteed.

Trailing Stops (TS) are attached to your opened positions, but it’s important to remember that if you have a trailing stop on MT4, you need to have the platform open for it to be successfully executed.

To set a Trailing Stop, right-click the open position in the ‘Terminal’ window and specify your desired pip value of distance between the TP level and the current price in the Trailing Stop menu.

Your Trailing Stop is now active. This means that if prices change to the profitable market side, TS will ensure the stop loss level follows the price automatically.

Your Trailing Stop can easily be disabled by setting ‘None’ in the Trailing Stop menu. If you want to quickly deactivate it in all opened positions, just select ‘Delete All’.