Stop Losses Explained
Every bot can watch its own trade and get out when things go wrong. The Trade Stop section of the bot editor controls what triggers a stop, who manages the order, and how aggressively the exit is worked.
What a stop out looks like, start to finish
Understanding the sequence makes every setting below easier to place:
- Watch. While the trade is open, the bot checks the position against your stop target every second.
- Confirm. When the target is first exceeded, your Stop Speed decides how much confirmation is required: the fastest settings act on one hit, the more patient ones require several hits across a check window so a single bad quote does not stop you out.
- Work the exit. The bot submits a closing order with a small price allowance, and if it does not fill, cancels and replaces it with a little more room on each attempt. The most aggressive settings can fall back to a market order.
- Record and follow up. The fill lands in your Trade Log and the bot's activity log, which narrates each check and attempt. If Launch on Stop is configured, the follow-up trade is scheduled.
Stop loss types
Stop Loss Type picks the condition the bot monitors. While a trade is open, the position is checked every second against your stop target.
| Type | Triggers when |
|---|---|
| Percent Loss | The loss reaches a percent of the open order value. |
| Dollar Loss | The trade price moves a set dollar amount against your entry, added for net-credit trades or subtracted for net-debit trades. |
| Underlying Points | The position is a set number of points in the money or out of the money. |
| Underlying Percent | The position is a set percent in the money or out of the money. |
| Fixed Delta | The position reaches the delta you set. |
| Relative Delta | The delta moves a set amount from the opening delta. |
| Short/Long Ratio | The ratio of total short premium to total long premium crosses your threshold. Only available with Net Position stop groupings. |
For underlying-based stops, Stop When ITM or OTM sets the direction to enforce. With a 200 call and Stop Underlying Points of 5, In the Money stops the trade when the underlying rises above 205, while Out of the Money stops it when the underlying falls below 195.
Percent Loss is the most common starting point, and its number reads differently on the two sides of the market. On a net-credit trade the percent is measured against the credit received: a Stop Percent Trigger of 250 stops the trade when closing it would cost 3.5 times the credit you collected. On a net-debit trade the number is the percent of the position's value you want to keep, not the percent lost: to stop out at a 30 percent loss, enter 70, and the trade stops when the position is worth 70 percent of what you paid. Underlying-based and delta-based stops react to where the market is rather than what the position is worth, which fits risk plans built around price levels instead of dollars.
Who manages the stop order
Stop Controller Type sets how stop orders are sent and managed:
- Bot Algo is the default. tradeSteward monitors the trade and submits the stop order once your parameters are exceeded, then works the order for a fill.
- Broker Resting submits a standing stop-market order directly to your broker. Because of broker API limits, this disables profit targets, allows only one leg to be the primary stop trigger, and limits Side to Stop grouping to Long Only or Short Only. Broker Resting is not available for Underlying Points, Fixed Delta, or Relative Delta stops.
With Broker Resting, Side to Stop chooses the single leg that closes: Long Only closes the long leg when it falls below the stop target, Short Only closes the short leg when it rises above the target.
Stop speed
Stop Speed controls how aggressive the bot is once the stop target is first exceeded: how many hits are required, how long between checks, and how long a limit order works before it is canceled and replaced with more slippage. The presets range from fastest to most patient: PDQ, Lightning, Turbo, Fast, Normal, Slow, and Turtle, plus a fully customizable option.
- PDQ stops out on the first hit and immediately sends a market order to close. Not available for multi-leg trades on tastytrade accounts.
- Lightning stops after one hit and starts a cancel and replace cycle after 1.5 seconds.
- Turbo through Turtle require multiple hits within a check window, from 2 hits out of 4 checks on a 2 second interval up to 3 hits out of 5 checks on a 60 second interval.
- Custom exposes the full Stop Trigger and Stop Order settings so you can set hits, checks, delays, slippage per attempt, and when to fall back to a market order.
Stopping part of the trade or all of it
Stop Groupings and Triggers controls what a triggered stop closes. Partial Trade Stops evaluate a leg or group of legs in isolation and close only that group, leaving the rest of the trade working. Entire Trade Stops close the whole trade when the grouped condition is violated.
An iron condor makes the difference concrete. With Verticals, the put spread and the call spread are each watched on their own: if the market drops hard, the put spread stops out while the call spread keeps working toward its target. With Entire Trade on Short, either short leg breaching the stop closes all four legs at once. Each Leg goes further and evaluates every leg independently, which is flexible but can leave long legs working alone after their offsetting shorts close, so the form asks you to confirm that choice deliberately.
A simple starting point for a defined-risk spread is Percent Loss with a Normal stop speed and an entire-trade grouping, tightened from there as you learn how your setup behaves. The full grouping-by-grouping semantics live in Bot Settings: Trade Stop.
Once your base stop is set, you can shape it over the life of the trade with stop adjustments and trailing stops, or chain a re-entry with Launch on Stop.