Stop losses

[James Purvis 5]

Hey guys,

This may sound like a stupid question (Im new to this, as you can probably tell) but why would you want to have a Stop Loss hotkey which doesn't set your stop at a technical level such as just above/below VWAP etc? Also, is there any way of setting up a Stop Loss hotkey that does this? 

Thanks!

[Justin 264]

Hey James, I'm a little confused by your question, but I'll take a stab at it!

Where you want to place your stop loss really depends on your strategy. For example, people who are scalping stocks, it may be nowhere near VWAP, Moving Average or a high/low of day. They have just witnessed a substantial pull back (expecting the stock to go back), they get in, and "arbitrarily" set their stop below the last 1-minute candle.

I'm not saying what I wrote above is a good trading strategy, but it hopefully gives you an idea why people may put their stop loss at levels that aren't a specific technical level.

And yes, for DAS, the hotkey looks something like this:

If you were short in a position and wanted to place a stop loss above your entry, you would double click on the chart, and then hit the hotkey that would execute this script.
ROUTE=STOP;StopType=Market;StopPrice=Price;Share=Pos;TIF=DAY+;BUY=SEND

This is the long version:
ROUTE=STOP;StopType=Market;StopPrice=Price;Share=Pos;TIF=DAY+;SELL=SEND