Widening Spread Keeps Triggering My Stop Loss

Title says it all, I've had my stop triggered several times due to the broker randomly jacking the spread up it's at the point that if my stop is less than 20 pips I don't use a stop and just constantly watch my positions until they have moved far enough into profit or they've hit my accepted risk and I close them. Is there a better way to deal with this? Nothing pisses me off more than being right but still getting stopped out because of the broker.

Like I know when I place a limit or stop order to enter a trade it will account for the spread and not take me into the trade until price has moved the required distance plus the spread. When I'm setting the stops for my trades I'm using the built in stop loss function, now would it be different if I were to place seperate stop orders like I would if I wanted to enter a trade?

If you are using mt4 or mt5 I believe there are expert advisors out there that will place "virtual stops" which the brokers are not supposed to see.

I use this one which is "free" and does the job great!

https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/5914

Awsome dude, seriously thank you. Losing trades don't bother me but what pisses me off more than I care to admit is when I eat a full 2% loss because my broker widened the spread and price never even moved against me.

Day-trading is the most competitive section of the foreign exchange trading niche. You may need to be professional grade to succeed.

Some brokers do that. My advice is, change your broker.

First off, brokers don't move spreads randomly - they either do it to limit their corporate risk owing to current or anticipated market volatility, or they do it deliberately to hit clients's stops.

The second one has a bad reputation but is not as common as it once was. Its illegal in well regulated jurisdictions. If you're not using a broker based in a well regulated jurisdiction, then stop-hunting is the least of your problems. Do not think of ever using a broker from some tiny hot island republic.

Spreads are widened during every single day. The only way to know when and how much is usually to watch the quotes not the charts all day. But a 20-pip spread is very big. What are you trading? It would be unusual to see a 20-pip spread on a major pair.

But not impossible - so when you were stopped out, what was going on? NFPR's? Interest rate announcement? Virus emergency news? Border shut-down?
Without understanding the problem, a solution will be random.

Ive had a few of these myself, being taken out by a widening spread. Not great at all.

It is quite annoying. During volatility market like news data release, widen spreads occurs. I always try to avoid this kind situation. Trader can also use fixed spreads to deal with this kind of situation.

The way I see it, the options are:

1. Change brokers
2. Change the size of your stops
3. Change the time that you are trading
4. Change to a more liquid pair

I think you need to change your broker. Find a good broker. I have never faced this. Compare charts with other brokers when you get hit this types of SL, see how far price goes with other brokers. If their price also goes to that area (+-2 to 4 pips) you need to change your stop loss pattern.

And maybe it's not a broker but trader.
We have not idea what SL he uses,what time he's talking about,what pars etc etc.

Still, spread widening randomly is not a good sign. And by randomly I mean not during news events.

There are a few things which may cause such a situation.

1. Your broker is a market maker: Their is high possibility that you are trading with a broker who has added plugins or makes its own prices. Such brokers always target your stop loss and tend to increase the spreads just to close your positions in losses. No matter what commissions they charge or do not charge any commission at all, you will never succeed with such brokers. Always look for a regulated pure ecn broker as they offer a genuine platform with complete transparency.

2. You trade during low liquidity: Spreads are often high during opening and closing time of the markets. Also if you trade on news, you will surely get high spreads because of extreme volatility in the market.