Place and manage a stop loss on low activity accounts

[Mr_Money]

I placed a stop loss on PFF  at 440 that nearly sold out my shares. PFF share price went from 460 to 440 on only 7 thousand rand worth of trades?

[prancing_horse]

I don't understand your question. You can't complain if you were sold out hitting your stop loss and then the share rebounds, one must remember there is always volatility , so setting a stop loss of only a few percent from where the share currently trades, the chances are that the stop loss will be triggered sooner or later.

[platvoet]

Mr Money my preferred option (and I think the way that most traders on this forum operate) is not to use active stops. If the end-of-day price takes out my stop, then I exit position the following morning. For volatile stocks there is extra risk this way hence small poitions. However why are you trading such an illiquid stock? It makes exiting a losing trade difficult.

[platvoet · Accepted solution]

Money, my earlier criticism hypocritical, as I have also traded smallcaps sometimes (the returns can be fantastic), but its not a good general practice.

[Mr_Money]

Thanks for the advice 

[SimonPB]

On a low liquid stock a stop loss needs to be managed carefully. I agree n using end of day rather than intra-day, but even if you want to do intra-day rather an SMS alert at your stop loss levela nd you can log in and manage it.

The risk with both of the above is that we then decide it is nt a real stop loss and don;t get out and before we know it the price is way lower.

[Mr_Money]

Thanks for the advice Simon.