A stop loss is a price you choose in advance. If the share falls to that price, the app sells for you automatically. Your loss stops there.
You do not have to watch the screen all day. You set it once, and the order waits.
Four reasons, in order of importance.
It caps the loss. A small loss you planned for is survivable. A large one you did not plan for is what ends accounts.
It works without you. The order sits in the market. You can be asleep, at work, or on a flight.
It removes the argument with yourself. The decision was made when you were calm. You do not renegotiate it when the price is falling.
It can lock in a profit. Once the share has risen, move the stop above your buy price. Now the worst outcome is a gain.
Mostly used for short-term trades, where the plan has a clear point at which it is wrong.
| The word | What it actually means | In our example |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger Price | The alarm. When the market reaches this price, your sell order wakes up and goes to the market. Nothing happens before this. | RM 0.310 |
| Price | The lowest price you will accept once the order is awake. Set it a little below the trigger, or a fast market may leave your order unsold. | RM 0.305 |
| Validity | How long the order stays alive. Day dies at the closing bell. GTD (Good Till Date) stays until the date you choose, so you do not have to set it again tomorrow. | GTD — 27 Dec |
Rule of thumb. Trigger Price is where the alarm rings. Price is how much lower you are still willing to sell. Keep a small gap between the two — a few ticks. If the two are identical and the price gaps down, the sale can miss.
Find the share in your portfolio, or search for it. The screenshot shows PANDA (0290) at RM 0.330. You will use the current price to decide your stop.
At the bottom of the screen there are two buttons: Buy in green, Sell in red.
Nothing is sold yet. This only opens the order form.
The form opens with Order Type set to Normal and Limit. That is an ordinary sell order, not what we want.
Check the account name at the top is yours before you go on.
Tap the second Order Type box, the one that says Limit. A list slides up from the bottom: Limit, Stop Limit, Limit If Touch.
Choose Stop Limit.
You will know it worked when a new box called Trigger Price appears in the form. If you cannot see it, you are still on Limit.
Three boxes, filled top to bottom. The screenshot shows a real example on a share trading at RM 0.330.
Watch the quantity box. It is labelled Qty. (x100). Typing 1,000 there means 100,000 shares, not 1,000. Count in lots.
Scroll down to Validity. It says Day. Tap it and a list slides up: Day, GTD.
Choose GTD — Good Till Date.
Leave it on Day and your protection ends when the market closes today. This is the most common mistake.
A calendar opens. Tap the date you want, then press Done. Use the arrow beside the month name to move forward.
Pick a date a few weeks out. The order then sits in the market, untouched, until then.
Pressing Send does not place the order yet. An Order Preview screen appears first. This is the last moment you can fix a typo.
All six correct? Press Proceed. Anything wrong, press Cancel and fix it.
Quantity changes units here. You typed 1 in the Qty. (x100) box; the preview shows 100. That is the same thing — 1 lot, 100 shares.
Open Order Status. Your order should be listed with the status Confirmed — here, PANDA at 0.305 for 100 shares. Confirmed means it is live in the market and waiting.
If it is not there, it was never placed. Start again. An order you assume exists is worse than no order at all.
GTD is not forever. On the date you chose, the status turns to Expired and the position is no longer protected. Nobody sends you a warning.
Put a reminder in your phone for the day before. If it has already expired, use Resend in Order Status to put the same order back, or Modify to change the price first.
Pick the share, then set the side to Sell. The panel opens on Normal – Limit.
While it says Limit, the box under Price is greyed out and cannot be typed in.
Click the order type box. A list drops down.
Choose Normal – Stop Limit. Not Limit, and not Limit If Touched.
Qty. (x100) counts lots, same as the app. Price is the lowest price you will accept. Stop Price is your cut-loss price — the app calls this Trigger Price.
Leave Min Qty. empty. The Stop Price box only accepts typing once the order type is Stop Limit.
Click the Validity box and either type the date or pick it from the calendar.
On the website you choose the date straight away; there is no separate GTD step.
Send opens the Order Preview. Read it before you commit: Order Type Stop Limit, Validity GTD, the price, the trigger price, the quantity in shares, and the expiry.
Correct? Press Submit. Wrong? Press Cancel and fix it.
Cancel the stop limit order first. Your shares are reserved by the waiting order. If you try to sell them normally while it is still open, the app will refuse, or you will end up selling twice.
Same share. Say you bought PANDA at RM 0.300 and it is now RM 0.345. Cancel the old stop limit, or use Modify, and set the trigger above your buy price — RM 0.315, for instance.
From that moment the trade cannot lose. If the share falls back, you are sold out with a gain. If it keeps rising, you raise the stop again.
Raise the stop only. Never lower it because you have a feeling the share will recover. That is how a planned small loss turns into a large one.
The order dies at the close and you are unprotected overnight. Always change it to GTD.
In a fast fall the market runs past your limit and nothing is sold. Leave a small gap below.
Ordinary daily wobble takes you out of a trade that was fine. Place it below a level that matters, not a few cents down.
This is the mistake that costs the most. You set the level when you were thinking clearly. Let it do its job.
The order quietly ends and nobody tells you. Diarise it.
The shares are already committed to the waiting order. Cancel, then sell.