Do any online brokers allow a % stop-loss conditional trade?

I really like the idea of being able to setup a conditional trade such that, if the price (of an otherwise rising share) drops by more than a certain % then a sell instruction is automatically issued.

Good article about 'how to setup a stoploss system' over here:

http://www.uknetguide.co.uk/Finance/Article/How_to_Set_Up_a_Stoploss_System.html

Stop-loss orders can also be used to lock in profits. In this case, the order is set at a percentage level below not the price at which you bought the share but the current market price. The price of the stop loss adjusts as the share price fluctuates.

Click to expand...

So I've bought RHG shares at 0.25c (over a year ago) and they're now trading at 0.40c. The advice I'm getting is that they will likely continue to rise. The thing is, I'm a value investor, not a day trader, so at some point it's possible that the advice I'm taking will recommend that the share price is now overvalued and therefore likely to fall once investors wake up to this. But I'm still happy to enjoy holding onto shares if the short-term emotion/irrationality of the market continues to push the price up. So by my way of thinking, it's much smarter to have in place a "% price drop" conditional instruction to sell the shares, as opposed to a conditional instruction to sell should the shares drop to a certain price (e.g. 0.36c), because the % approach is continually revising the sell price upwards. As a value investor of course I don't want to have to watch a share price every day and be manually raising the stop-loss sell price if a share price continues to rise.

a) Am I making sense?
b) Do any online share trading services offer a "% price drop" stop-loss service?

Thanks!

Re: Do any online share trading services allow a % stop-loss conditional trade?

Googling away, and found the answer to my own question:

https://invest.etrade.com.au/Help/Context.aspx?key=Conditional Orders#Types+of+Conditional+Orders

Trailing Sell

Lock in your profits.

A Trailing Sell uses a Trailing Percentage based upon yesterday’s High/Low/Close. For example, you may wish to sell if your stock falls by 5% or more of yesterday’s close in order to take advantage of rising prices and lock in profit as it comes off.

This Sell Trigger Price is recalculated overnight and is not a static figure. There are two types of Trailing Sell orders; Profit Target and Trailing Stop orders.

If the share price rises, the trailing Sell price will follow the share price up. It is recalculated daily and will follow the share price in an upward direction only. If the share price begins to fall the trailing percentage locks in place and stays at the same price as the previous day - it does not move down. If the share price continues to fall it will eventually hit the Trigger Price and trigger the Conditional Order. The trailing price mechanism only ever moves upwards or horizontal, it never moves down.

Click to expand...

Which other online trading sites offer this service?

Thanks!

Hi namecaps,

You'll find that most of the brokers in Oz are coming to the party re: Stop Losses.

Glad to know that you are beginning with an end in mind ie. exit strategy.

Do a search on this site. For ding a ling, bells and whistles conditional orders, most here seem to give Interactive Brokers pretty good wraps.