Is the trailing stop working at all? I shorted a coin, it showed up as -1 btc as a position. Then i created a trailing stop that was 1 btc above the current price. That was 238.71$. But it showed up as 472.01$ in the order list. I dont know if the price changed over time but it didnt look like it matched a sell at some point. Even though im sure the price dropped, good enough, but then raised more than the 1 btc again. The coin wasnt sold.
So am i misunderstanding something?
No i tried it with a long. Again around 1btc difference. Now the price shows up as 0.98. Might be the difference. But still strange and wouldnt make sense for the other order.
It looks to me that you set the delta to $238. A trailing stop would trail the price by a fixed amount, so if i wanted to buy at 230, i might put a trailing stop for $5 (this would mean my stop would activate if the price dropped to $225), but if the price rose to $240, the stop would now activate at $235...in other words, it will continue to always be 5 dollars less than the current price (bid or ask depending on the side of the position, long or short).
This can be useful, because it allows you to basically control your losses, which is what stops are meant to do, BUT, you might catch more of the gains, because it will change as the price changes.
Hope that made sense, let me know if you have other questions.
Ah, thats how it meant... to be. I thought it takes the actual price and calculates the difference itself. I might have get the idea of what happened myself though.
If i bought through margin trading then i have this active position. I can close it. But can i create close orders like stop loss or take profit orders? I only see the possibility to buy long or shorts with these order options.
There should be a dropdown menu for order type which will let you select between Limit, Market, Stop, Trailing Stop etc
I know, but this seems to be only for buying into a short or a long position. What about when i already have bought into and want to set rules when to close my position? I mean when it would be only one product then there would be buy and sell forms. There are only buy forms and a link to close a position. Or can i use the buy forms to close my position too?
You would be using stops or trailing stops in order to protect against moves against you, you would use a limit order at your target price, you can use OCO orders (one cancels others) in order to avoid having both orders sent. When the stop is activated, if it is set up as an OCO, it would automatically cancel the order it was linked to.
Yeah, it works. Though i wonder how i can achieve the following: I buy a long position. Then i create a stop loss for the same amount. But if it goes into that direction then i want to create another order that buys the same amount in the other direction, only a bit lower. So that iam in a short position of the same size at that point. If i would try to create a limit order then it would sell my actual position instantly. I could create another stop loss maybe. Though it would buy at market prices and with higher fees then.
And thats my second question. Can a stop loss be made to sell with a limit? For example setting a stop loss for selling when price goes under 230usd. The stop loss should sell then with a limit of 225 and when it goes lower than that then it should sell at market price. Anything like that possible?
I noticed that the fees are a big factor when trying to make a profit since the fee is for the borrowed money, so a multiple of the fee that it would be for the money only you own in your account. Has bitfinex the lowest trading fees for margin trades at the moment?