The moving average (MA) indicator is a volatility indicator that shows the movement of an instrument for a given timeframe to smooth out the data and provide an average, this indicator can help traders place their stop losses for maximum effect. With the cTrader Moving Average Trailing Stop cBot, you can have your positions stop loss keeping a distance equal to the MA Indicator Value.
Advantages
Risk Management is one of the most important aspects of trading and having a Stop Loss will protect you from margin calls and big losses, in many cases, it is useful to have a trailing stop, which is also called a moving stop, this is where the stop is updated when the price moves in favour of the trade locking in profits and reducing any risk exposure.
There are several advantages of using cTrader Moving Average Trailing Stop cBot:
- A Stop Loss is set automatically if there is none.
- Better Order Placement by measuring volatility.
- The Stop Loss follows the price when moving in the favor of the trade
- It doesn’t require human interaction.
- Limit Losses.
- Secure Profits.
- Avoid Margin Calls.
How to Use This cBot
The first step is to understand the settings that you will need to adjust, these are explained below, once you have your preferred setup all you need to do is start the cBot and it will manage both existing trades that are open and any new trades that you may open after you start this system.
Which Symbols Does It Manage?
Due to the fact that the MA indicator is calculated for the symbol that you have selected when you create a new cBot instance than it will only adjust the stop loss for that particular symbol, it will not manage all open symbols, if you wish to use this tool on another symbol, you will need to create a new cBot instance and configure again.
Positions With No Stop Loss
If you have any positions with no stop loss, then this tool will automatically create a stop loss that will trail behind the symbol price based on the MA calculations.
Positions With A Stop Losses
If you have any positions open that have an existing stop loss then this will be replaced by this tool and the new stop loss will also trail behind the price based on the Moving Average calculations.
MA Switches Sides While Managing a Stop Loss
If a stop loss is being managed for a position when the Moving Average line switches sides above or below the symbol price then the stop loss will remain on the last MA price and no longer be managed, this is the optimal stop loss before the trend reversal.
Excessive Notifications?
If you are getting many notifications each time the stop loss is adjusted then this is because the stop loss trails behind the MA value and the MA value is updated more often on lower timeframes, so if you do intend to use this tool with low time frames just change the setting "On Bar Close" to YES, this will only update the stop loss when the candle closes instead.
Does It Manage The Take Profit?
No, this tool will only manage your stop loss.
How to View The Indicator
The cBot will not show the indicator on the chart, you will need to install the indicator separately and configure this on the chart, you will find the Moving Average indicator from the list of cTrader indicators as default.
MA cBot Settings
- Attach to Label - option to only manage positions that have a unique label name.
- Label Name - the unique label name of the position.
- On Bar Close - option to adjust the trailing stop loss only when the candle (bar) closes, if set to NO, then the TSL is adjusted when the MA price has changed.
- MA Type - option to choose from 7 different types of moving averages.
- Period - MA indicator period.
Watch a Video Explainer
We have recorded a hands-on tutorial on how to use the cBot.
Duration: 10-minutes - Watch full screen on YouTube
How To Install & Remove
First, make sure you have the cTrader trading platform installed and then unzip the file and double-click on it to automatically install it onto the platform.
Any Questions?
If you have any questions, please first search our product help site for the answer, if you cannot find it, post a new question.
