A correct way of checking when a position becomes profitable

[Lukasz]

Hello,

I want to update (trail) stop loss level only if a position is profitable. Is the below expression a correct way of detecting this condition?

OrderProfit() - OrderCommission() + OrderSwap() > 0

Does the commission returned by this function correspond to one way trade or it also accounts for the cost of closing the position? Should the above expression be replaced with:

OrderProfit() - 2 * OrderCommission() + OrderSwap() > 0

(This assumes that the cost associated with closing the position is the same as of opening the position).

Thanks,

Lukasz

[Russell]

OrderProfit() + OrderCommission() + OrderSwap() > 0

[Lukasz]

Russell:

Thanks Russell.

Actually, I dropped the idea of accounting for commission and swap when checking if a trailing stop should be applied to a stop level. For example, for a buy order only Bid and order open price is considered:

Bid - order open price > trailing stop

This assumes that the trader accounted for commission and swap when choosing the trailing stop level.

Is this approach reasonable? Initially, I thought about factoring commission and swap into the above formula, i.e.:

Bid - order open price - commission (in points) + swap (in points) > trailing stop

Which approach makes more sense?

Lukasz