What is trailing stop?

What it means

The mechanism is simple: as price moves in your favour by some amount, the stop is moved up by the same amount, and it never moves back. A trailing stop therefore converts an open profit into a floor under the trade, at the cost of guaranteeing that you exit below the peak.

Why it matters

That cost is the part traders underestimate. A trailing stop cannot both protect a gain and let a trade breathe — every dollar of protection is a dollar of room removed. On a volatile instrument the trail is frequently hit by a normal retracement in a move that then continues without you.

What this changes in practice

We ship with trailing switched off, and that is an evidence-based decision rather than an oversight. Trailing was enabled in earlier versions with breakeven at 50% of target and a profit lock at 80%; measured against a fixed 2:1 target over the same periods, it reduced net result on XAUUSD. The setting still exists for anyone who wants it — see the setup guide — but the default reflects what the testing showed.