Course › Level 3 — How not to lose your money

Stop loss and take profit — decide before you enter

Every trade has three numbers, and you set all three before clicking buy or sell:

• Entry — where you get in
• Stop loss (SL) — where you admit you're wrong and the platform closes the trade automatically for a small, planned loss
• Take profit (TP) — where the platform banks your win automatically

Where does the stop go?

Behind the level that made you take the trade. Buying at support? Stop goes below the support — with breathing room, because volatile markets (especially synthetics) routinely spike a little past a level before going the right way. A stop placed exactly at the obvious level gets clipped by noise; give it margin and size the trade down to keep the dollar risk at 1%.

The 1:2 rule

Aim to win at least twice what you risk (risking $2 to make $4+). At 1:2, you only need to win 4 trades out of 10 to be profitable. That's the whole business model of trading: small controlled losses, bigger wins, repeated.

A trade without a stop loss isn't a trade. It's a donation with extra steps.

Mark lesson complete