can trailing stop function be used for previous low?

[longshorts]

Hi,
I'm a first time poster and am running a trial copy.
Can the TrailingStop function be used to implement a previous low stop strategy, or is it only for volatility type stops?
I want to do for eg, exit if closing price goes below lowest low value in last 3 days not including today. My experiments with the function have all resulted in the trailing stop being ignored.
eg
stop:= llv(l,3);
BandLong:= if(c<prev,stop,if(stop>PREV,stop,PREV));
LongExitTrigger:= ExtFml("TradeSim.TrailingStop",trigger,long,BandLong,l,c);
LongExitPrice:= OPEN;

When I just code this idea into the exit trigger instead of using the trailing stop function
eg
LongExitTrigger:= c<ref(llv(l,3),-1);
I think that would allow the stop to go down as well as up or am I wrong about this?
So basically what I am looking for is a way to have my trailing stop based on previous lows, to only be allowed to go up, and ideally not to be considered until the stop goes above the original buy price.

Many Thanks,
Longshorts.

[David Samborsky]

For those who are interested in the Trailing Stop function I strongly suggest that you download the latest updated documentation for AN-2 as it now contains flow chart diagrams which provide much insight into the operation of the fast trailing stop function ;-)

[longshorts]

David,
Thanks for the suggestion. I have already downloaded and read all documentation. I made sure I did this after reading replies to many other posts which suggest the same thing.
All references in the AN-2 notes elude to volatility stops, I am asking whether tecnical stops can be used as well, and if so how, because I have had no success so far.
I only joined the forum to ask questions for which I cannot glean the answers from the manuals and appendices.
I know the answers are in there, I just can't see them for myself.
For the question at hand, I could even have made use of a simple yes or no answer, for then I would know that even though I have spent 3 days of my 14 day trial trying to get the fast trailing stop function to work for my style, it was not completely wasted and Tradesim may suit my needs.
As it stands, I am not sure of this and one does not want to tailor one's trading style to suit a software package.

I respectfully re-put the question posted above to you, David.

Many thanks,
Longshorts

[David Samborsky]

For the question at hand, I could even have made use of a simple yes or no answer, for then I would know that even though I have spent 3 days of my 14 day trial trying to get the fast trailing stop function to work for my style, it was not completely wasted and Tradesim may suit my needs.

The trailing stop may not suit everyones needs but was mainly introduced to improve the sluggish performance of coding it using the MS formula language. In some cases you may have to hand code your own trailing stop using the formula language. However I think I have a solution for you ;-)

The trailing stop function is based on volatility and not the absolute stop. However it is easy to convert the absolute stop to a volatility level. Try the following :-


stop&#58;= llv&#40;l,3&#41;;
Volatility&#58;=EntryPrice-stop;

LongExitTrigger&#58;= ExtFml&#40;"TradeSim.TrailingStop",trigger,long,Volatility,l,c&#41;;


However you will have problems for the situation where stop >= EntryPrice

You may have to introduce additional code to filter this situation out.

[longshorts]

Thanks David,
I'll give that a try.
Regards
Longshorts