Stopline Trade Manager › Guides

Seven Trailing Stop Types Compared

By Brendon, a trader for 15 years and the maker of Stopline Trade Manager. Updated 27 October 2026.

A trailing stop moves the stop loss behind the price as a trade goes your way, so a winning trade gives back less when it turns. MetaTrader's built-in trailing stop keeps one fixed distance in points and runs only while the terminal is on. The types below differ in where they place the stop.

How Every Type Works

Each type finds a reference level, subtracts an indent (adds it for a sell) and moves the stop loss there, with three rules:

• Start: only after the trade has gained a set amount (0 starts at once).
• Forward only: the stop never moves back.
• Step: only by at least a minimum step, so it does not modify the order on every tick.

A timer sets how often it checks: every few seconds or once per bar.

The Seven Types

Described for a buy; a sell mirrors them.

Type	Where the stop goes	Character
Fixed distance	A set distance behind the price	Simple; choose a distance larger than the usual pullback
Fractals	Below the last completed fractal	Follows swing lows, so it moves in steps
Moving Average	At the moving average of the last closed bar, while it is below the price	Simple or exponential, your period and shift
Parabolic SAR	At the SAR of the last closed bar	Tightens as the trend continues; your step and maximum
ATR	A multiple of the Average True Range below the price, or below the previous bar's high	Adapts to volatility: wider in fast markets
Partial-close level	At the price of the last partial close	Locks in each step of a trade closed in parts
Previous bar	At the previous bar's low	A tight trail for fast moves

Choosing One

• For a trend you want to ride, the wider types (ATR, moving average, fractals) leave room for pullbacks.
• For a fast move you want to protect, the previous bar or a small fixed distance stays close.
• If you close in parts, the partial-close level type moves the stop to each level as it is reached.
• Whatever the type, the stop only moves forward, and the Start setting keeps it still until the trade is in profit.

Trailing in Stopline Trade Manager

The Trailing tab sets the type, the units of the distance (points, reward-to-risk, percent of price or percent of the take-profit distance), Start, Step, Indent, the timer and the timeframe, and the indicator parameters. An ATR option gives a position without a stop loss an initial one. Each position's trailing can be switched on or off from its menu on the chart. Indicator types read the chart's own data, so with "Manage all symbols" they trail only the chart symbol; fixed distance and partial-close level trail every symbol.

Trailing runs inside the Expert Advisor, so the terminal must be running and connected, as with MetaTrader's own trailing stop. All seven types work on MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4.

Watch it in the video manual of Stopline Trade Manager, at 25:57.