Order ticket

Stop loss on candle close for cTrader

The trade closes when a candle closes through your level, not when a wick touches it. It is watched on our server, so it keeps working with your browser shut, and your broker-side stop stays in place underneath it. On Pro and Premium.

Two levels, one stop

You set a stop loss as usual; it rests at the broker and closes the trade on the touch, whatever happens to Propcockpit. Inside it you set the bar-close level and a timeframe. When a candle on that timeframe closes through the level, Propcockpit closes the position at market, the same close as the Close button, and records it in your Journal.

The broker stop is required, and the bar-close level has to sit inside it: a candle that would never close before the stop is hit is a level that could never fire. Risk is measured to your stop loss, not to the bar-close level - the account is exposed to it for the whole candle. A safety-margin close can still cut a candle short.

How a close is judged

• Timeframes: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours or 1 day, on your broker’s own candle times.
• Through, or at: a candle that closes exactly at the level counts.
• The price the stop would fill at: the bid for a long, the ask for a short.
• Not a clock: a candle is final when the next price arrives, so a quiet market, a weekend or a halt judges nothing until trading resumes.

When your browser is shut, or we restart

The level is watched on our server, not in your browser. If our server restarts, it reads the candles that closed while it was away from your broker and closes a position whose candle went through, late rather than never. Those candles are the broker’s bid candles, so for a short the catch-up can be out by less than a spread. If the broker does not answer a close, nothing is forgotten: the next candle that closes through asks again. And if Propcockpit cannot reach your broker at all, your broker stop is the exit.

From a TradingView alert

A strategy that trades through TradingView alerts can arm the same stop on the trade it opens: the alert sends sl_trigger: bar_close with the level and the timeframe, beside the broker stop it must still carry, and the level is watched on our server from the fill, exactly as one set in the order ticket is. A level at or past the broker stop is refused rather than armed. The fields are in the webhooks documentation.

When it does not wait for the candle

• Your Buffer runs out: if the Buffer - what is left of the day once the Reserve and the risk of open positions are counted - reaches zero, positions with a bar-close level are closed at market at once, before the daily line itself, because waiting for a candle would be watching the account towards it.
• A trailing stop overtakes it: once the broker’s trailing stop has moved past the level, the broker closes on the touch first, so the level retires and you are told.

Is it allowed at your prop firm?

A bar-close stop closes a position automatically, so your firm’s rule on automated tools applies to it. FundedNext and Alpha Capital Group do not allow automated trading on their cTrader accounts. Check with your firm before you arm one. Each covered firm’s rule, in its own words and with its source, is on TradingView alerts to cTrader.

Plans

Bar-close stops are on Pro and Premium, each with a 7-day trial that needs no card. The order ticket, sizing by risk and the broker-side stop are on every plan; see pricing and the order ticket documentation.

Questions

Does cTrader have a stop loss on candle close?

cTrader's own stop loss, trailing stop and take profits trigger on price, so a wick through the level closes the trade. A stop that waits for the candle to close needs something watching the candles; in Propcockpit that is our server, with your broker stop still in place underneath.

Does a wick through the level close the trade?

No. Only the candle's close counts, measured on the price the stop would fill at: the bid for a long, the ask for a short. A close exactly at the level counts as through.

Which timeframes can I use?

5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours or 1 day, on your broker's own candle times.

What if Propcockpit is down?

Then the broker stop is what protects the trade, which is why one is required. When our server comes back it reads the candles that closed while it was away from the broker and closes a position whose candle went through, late.

Is it allowed at my prop firm?

It closes a position automatically, so check your firm's rule on automated tools first. FundedNext and Alpha Capital Group do not allow automated trading on their cTrader accounts. Each covered firm's own rule is on the TradingView alerts page, with its source.

Can a TradingView alert set it?

Yes. A TradingView alert that opens a trade through Propcockpit can arm the same stop: it names the level and the timeframe beside the broker stop it must still carry, and the level is watched from the fill exactly as one set in the order ticket is. The fields are in the webhooks documentation.

Which plans include it?

Pro and Premium, each with a 7-day trial that needs no card.