Two ways to move a stop automatically
A breakeven rule moves the stop loss to the entry price once the trade is a set distance in profit. From then on the trade can't lose (apart from spread, commission and slippage on the exit). A trailing stop follows the price at a fixed distance: on a buy, every time the price makes a new high, the stop moves up so it stays the same distance behind; it never moves back down.
Breakeven at +20 pips, trailing at 30 pips, on a EURUSD buy at 1.0850
- Price reaches 1.0870 (+20 pips) → stop moves to 1.0850.
- Price reaches 1.0890 → trailing stop at 1.0860 (30 pips behind).
- Price reaches 1.0920 → stop at 1.0890.
- Price falls back to 1.0890 → trade closes +40 pips.
How they work on a copier
In CopyTraderTool, breakeven and trailing are set per copier in pips and managed on our servers for each copied trade; there is nothing to run in your terminal. The stop that results is a normal broker-side stop on your account, so it stays in place even if a connection drops. Moving it further pauses until the connection is back.
If the source also moves its stop and your copier copies SL as is, both act on the same trade, so the stop you end up with depends on which moved last. Check the combination on a demo copy before relying on it. Telegram channels often do the breakeven part themselves with a "move SL to BE" reply, which the copier applies to the linked trades.
Choosing the numbers
- Relate them to the stop, not to a round number. Breakeven at 1R (when profit equals the initial risk) is a common starting point; earlier than about 0.5R and normal noise will stop you out at entry constantly.
- Relate trailing distance to volatility. A 15-pip trail on gold is shorter than a minute's noise; a 15-pip trail on EURGBP may be fine. Average true range on your trading timeframe is a sensible yardstick.
- Mind the pip definition. On gold a "pip" may be 0.10 or 0.01 depending on the symbol; check before you type 20. See pips, points and lots.
The trade-off nobody mentions
Breakeven turns some losers into scratches, and it also turns some winners into scratches: trades that would have pulled back to just above entry and then run to target. Whether that is good depends on the strategy. For strategies with a high win rate and close targets, early breakeven often lowers total profit. For trend-following with distant targets, a trail can capture much more of the move.
If you copy a source with a proven track record, its results were produced without your breakeven and trailing rules. Adding them changes the strategy. Test them on a demo copy first and compare, in R, with the unmodified source. The risk/reward calculator helps you see the effect on break-even win rate.