Trailing stops that stop trailing

[Shadow Trader]

The trailing stop in MT4 runs on the client side. It isn't stored on the broker's server. The terminal watches price and sends modify requests as the market moves.

When the terminal closes, the trailing stops. The server holds only the last stop that was sent, and nothing updates it. A trade that reached a profit of 20 pips, with a trailing stop moved to +12, is protected at +12 even if the terminal crashes. But if price moves another 30 pips in favor, the stop stays at +12.

Worse, if the terminal reconnects after a long outage and price has retraced, the trailing resumes from wherever the stop was, without the benefit of the moves missed during the break.

Some brokers offer server-side trailing stops, which keep working regardless of the connection. These are a clear improvement, though their implementation varies, and not every platform supports them.

For scalpers, the effect is small on 2 pip trades but important for longer trades that run.

Is a server-side trailing stop available on the broker used here, and does it behave like the client-side one?

[FXS Prop Desk]

A trade that reached a profit of 20 pips, with a trailing stop moved to +12, is protected at +12 even if the terminal crashes.

This catches many traders. For anyone relying on a trailing stop, a VPS keeps the terminal running. Otherwise, a fixed take profit on the server is safer than a trailing stop that dies with the laptop.

[Amanhasnoname]

I learned this the hard way during a home internet outage a couple of years ago. I had a EURJPY long running nicely through the London afternoon, trailing at 15 pips behind price, and the router died while I was out. When I got back and reconnected, the pair had run a good way further and then pulled back, and the stop had never moved from the level it sat at when the connection dropped. I still made money, but roughly half of what the trade had offered.

My broker does have a server side trailing option on their own web platform, but I found it behaves differently from MT4. It moves in fixed steps rather than tick by tick, so on a fast move the stop jumps in chunks and lags a little behind where the MT4 version would be. For longer holds I don't mind that at all.

These days anything I intend to trail goes on a small VPS, and the laptop is just a window into it. For quick scalps I simply use a fixed target and don't bother trailing.