trailing stop loss calculation question - on bar close price or calc and set in real time?

[idh]

Hi

I'm coding up some trailing stop loss functionality for my EA. I was wondering what people's thoughts/opinions are with regards to using Moving averages as basis for stop loss, or something like ATR?

But my main question is, assuming I use a moving average, would it be better to recalculate and adjust my stop loss on the previous bar's close price, or do people generally do it in real time for each incoming tick. I know a lot of EAs tend to wait for a new bar before executing a buy or sell on a given signal, but I wondered whether the same practice is also wise for setting Stop losses. If I do it in real time for each tick, it seems less stable to me and more prone to whipsaw..

Any thoughts ?

[Ubzen]

idh: I'm coding up some trailing stop loss functionality for my EA. I was wondering what people's thoughts/opinions are with regards to using Moving averages as basis for stop loss, or something like ATR?

But my main question is, assuming I use a moving average, would it be better to recalculate and adjust my stop loss on the previous bar's close price, or do people generally do it in real time for each incoming tick. I know a lot of EAs tend to wait for a new bar before executing a buy or sell on a given signal, but I wondered whether the same practice is also wise for setting Stop losses. If I do it in real time for each tick, it seems less stable to me and more prone to whipsaw..

Any thoughts ?

1) Depends on the Strategy.

2) I prefer "upon bar opening". Less prone to whipsaws. Less prone to re-painting ... what you see would be what happened.

[idh]

ubzen:

1) Depends on the Strategy.

2) I prefer "upon bar opening". Less prone to whipsaws. Less prone to re-painting ... what you see would be what happened.

thanks - you mean execute upon new bar opening but looking back at the previous bar, yes?

[Ubzen]

idh: thanks - you mean execute upon new bar opening but looking back at the previous bar, yes?

Yes, same idea as bar_close_price (in most cases).

I just word it that way because you cannot tell when the bar_close until another opens.

You can also use the new_bar open_price because it doesn't change during the life of the bar.