Percent Trailing (Strategy)
DisclaimerThe Percent Trailing strategy uses the EasyLanguage reserved word SetPercentTrailing to place an order to exit all shares or contracts in all positions, once the position has retraced a specified percentage amount of the position' s highest profit value, once a profit floor amount in dollars has been reached. The floor amount can be specified on a total position basis, or a one contract or one share basis. Whether the profit target amount is based on a position or per share/contract basis is determined by the input parameter.
Once applied a stop exit order is generated at the highest position profit value minus the trailing percentage amount. All stop orders are stop market orders. If the price falls back to the trailing profit percentage amount, a market order is generated and sent into the market.
The Percent Trailing strategy can exit with a profit or loss on the trade, once the floor has been reach.
Normally strategies generate orders on the close of the bar for execution on the next bar, Percent Trailing allows you to generate orders and exit on the same bar as the bar of entry, this is especially useful when working with longer during bars, (e.g. 30-min, 60-min, daily, weekly, monthly).
The calculation for this strategy does not take commission or slippage into account.
Input Parameters
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
| PositionBasis | True/False | False | True/False switch allowing you to calculate the dollar floor amount either on a position or per share basis. To calculate profit per position, enter True. |
| FloorAmt | Numeric | 1 | The profit amount (in dollars) that must be exceeded before the trailing stop is activated. |
| Amount | Numeric | 20 | The trailing amount as a percent of the maximum position profit at which point the position will be closed. |
Example
Stocks:
When the PositionBasis parameter is set to TRUE, the FloorAmt parameter sets the trailing floor amount as a dollar amount of profit from the entry price based on the total number of shares or contracts in the current open position. (if you held 500 shares of MSFT and specified $200 trailing floor amount, you would activate the percent trailing stop when the total profit for the position reached $200.00 dollars.
When the PositionBasis parameter is set to FALSE, the FloorAmt parameter sets the trailing floor amount as a dollar amount of profit from the entry price on a 1 share or 1 contract basis for the current open position. (if you held 500 shares of MSFT and specified $0.60 trailing floor amount, you would activate the percent trailing stop when the 1 share profit reached $0.60.
Electronic Futures:
When calculating the trailing floor amount in dollars for electronic futures, EasyLanguage looks at the dollar value of each contract. For example, the e-mini S&P has a $50.00 value for each $1.00 move in the price.
When the PositionBasis parameter is set to TRUE, and you held 5 contracts of the S&P e-mini and specified $250 trailing floor amount, you would activate the percent trailing stop at $250 in total position profit. With a 20% trailing percent amount, if the position reaches a total position profit of $1,000, the trailing stop would be calculated at a retracement to $800 in profit.
When the PositionBasis parameter is set to FALSE, and you held 5 contracts of the S&P e-mini and specified $250 trailing amount, you would activate the percent trailing stop at $1250 in total position profit. (250 * 5 contracts) With a 20% trailing percent amount, if the 1 contract profit reaches $250, the trailing stop would be calculated at a retracement to $200 in profit.
Orders Generated
Market Order to Sell (Long Exit) or Market Order to Buy to Cover (Short Exit)
Signal Name
% Trailing Stop
Related Strategies
Profit Target, Stop Loss, Dollar Trailing
Related Functions
SetPercentTrailing