A trailing stop is a stop-loss that automatically moves in the trade's favor as the price moves favorably, maintaining a fixed distance behind the current price, but it never moves back against you. It lets a trader lock in progressively more profit on a winning trade without having to manually adjust the stop level.
If the market reverses, the trailing stop stays at its most recent level and triggers a close once price falls back to it — turning an open profit into a realized (if smaller) gain rather than letting it round-trip back to a loss.
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Margin Calls and Stop-Outs Explained
Balance, equity and margin level explained — how a margin call differs from a stop-out, which position closes first, and when a gap outruns the system.