Beginning Tuesday, Oct 20: Trailing Stops Follow Only the Contracts Still Open
Starting at the opening bell on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 (9:30 a.m. Eastern), a trailing stop follows only the contracts still open in a trade. When part of a trade closes, the trail starts over for the contracts that remain.
What is changing
Until October 20, a trailing stop measures the whole trade. After a partial close, profit already banked by the closed contracts still counts toward your Profit Trigger and Allowance, and the best profit reached before the close still sets the stop-out level. That can stop out the remaining contracts on numbers they did not earn, or let banked profit hide a real drawdown in them.
From October 20:
- Measured on what is open. The Profit Trigger, the best profit the trail follows, and the Allowance are all measured on the contracts still open. Banked profit no longer arms or fires the trail.
- A partial close restarts the trail. That covers a partial profit target fill, one side of an iron condor stopping out, reducing a trade from the dashboard, a leg expiring, an early assignment, or a reduction made at your broker.
- The remaining contracts earn it back. The trail re-arms when their own profit crosses your Profit Trigger. If they are already above it, the trail re-arms on the next check, starting from where they stand and not from the old peak.
An example
A 10-lot credit spread sold for $1.50, with a 30% Profit Trigger and a 10% Allowance. Profit reaches 35%, so the stop-out level is 25%. Profit eases to 28% and you close 4 spreads, banking $168. The 6 remaining spreads then dip to 20%.
| Before October 20 | From October 20 |
|---|---|
| With the banked $168 counted, the overall trade reads about 23%. That is under the 25% stop-out level, so the 6 spreads are closed. | The trail restarted when the 4 spreads closed. The remaining 6 were at 28%, under the 30% trigger, so no trail is armed and nothing happens at 20%. |
| The stop came from a peak set partly by contracts that were no longer open. | If the 6 spreads climb to 33%, the trail arms and follows their own best, with a stop-out level of 23%. |
What stays the same
- Your settings. Nothing to edit. A trigger and allowance mean the same thing per spread that they do now.
- Your dashboard profit. Profit and Max Profit on the Trading Dashboard and in your reports still describe the whole trade, closed contracts included.
- A leftover long sold later. When a short leg closes while its long has no bid, the bot keeps the long and sells it once a buyer appears. That later sale adds to the trade's profit and leaves the trail alone.
- Editing a live trade's trail. Changing the trigger or allowance on an open trade keeps the best profit the open contracts have already reached.
Trades already open that morning
- Nothing has closed: the trade keeps the best profit it has already reached, and an armed trail stays armed.
- Part has already closed: the trail starts over for the contracts still open, and re-arms when their own profit crosses your Profit Trigger.
This applies to every bot with Trailing Stops enabled, on every broker. If you run multi-day trades that are partly closed, check their trailing stop line on the dashboard that morning, and read Trailing Stops in Depth for the full walkthrough.