If the stoploss is *on exchange* it means a stoploss limit order is placed on the exchange immediately after buy order fills. This will protect you against sudden crashes in market, as the order execution happens purely within the exchange, and has no potential network overhead.
For example, assuming the stoploss is on exchange, and trailing stoploss is enabled, and the market is going up, then the bot automatically cancels the previous stoploss order and puts a new one with a stop value higher than the previous stoploss order.
In case of stoploss on exchange there is another parameter called `stoploss_on_exchange_interval`. This configures the interval in seconds at which the bot will check the stoploss and update it if necessary.
Stoploss on exchange on futures markets can trigger on different price types.
The naming for these prices in exchange terminology often varies, but is usually something around "last" (or "contract price" ), "mark" and "index".
Acceptable values for this setting are `"last"`, `"mark"` and `"index"` - which freqtrade will transfer automatically to the corresponding API type, and place the [stoploss on exchange](#stoploss_on_exchange-and-stoploss_on_exchange_limit_ratio) order correspondingly.
`force_exit` is an optional value, which defaults to the same value as `exit` and is used when sending a `/forceexit` command from Telegram or from the Rest API.
`force_entry` is an optional value, which defaults to the same value as `entry` and is used when sending a `/forceentry` command from Telegram or from the Rest API.
This is very simple, you define a stop loss of x (as a ratio of price, i.e. x * 100% of price). This will try to sell the asset once the loss exceeds the defined loss.
You could also have a default stop loss when you are in the red with your buy (buy - fee), but once you hit a positive result (or an offset you define) the system will utilize a new stop loss, which can have a different value.
If you want the stoploss to only be changed when you break even of making a profit (what most users want) please refer to next section with [offset enabled](#trailing-stop-loss-only-once-the-trade-has-reached-a-certain-offset).
Use `trailing_stop_positive_offset` to ensure that your new trailing stoploss will be in profit by setting `trailing_stop_positive_offset` higher than `trailing_stop_positive`. Your first new stoploss value will then already have locked in profits.
Example with simplified math:
``` python
stoploss = -0.10
trailing_stop = True
trailing_stop_positive = 0.02
trailing_stop_positive_offset = 0.03
```
* the bot buys an asset at a price of 100$
* the stop loss is defined at -10%, so the stop loss would get triggered once the asset drops below 90$
* assuming the asset now increases to 102$
* the stoploss will now be at 91.8$ - 10% below the highest observed rate
* assuming the asset now increases to 103.5$ (above the offset configured)
If `trailing_only_offset_is_reached = True` then the trailing stoploss is only activated once the offset is reached. Until then, the stoploss remains at the configured `stoploss`.
Stoploss should be thought of as "risk on this trade" - so a stoploss of 10% on a 100$ trade means you are willing to lose 10$ (10%) on this trade - which would trigger if the price moves 10% to the downside.
When using leverage, the same principle is applied - with stoploss defining the risk on the trade (the amount you are willing to lose).
Therefore, a stoploss of 10% on a 10x trade would trigger on a 1% price move.
If your stake amount (own capital) was 100$ - this trade would be 1000$ at 10x (after leverage).
Make sure to be aware of this, and avoid using too tight stoploss (at 10x leverage, 10% risk may be too little to allow the trade to "breath" a little).
A stoploss on an open trade can be changed by changing the value in the configuration or strategy and use the `/reload_config` command (alternatively, completely stopping and restarting the bot also works).
The new stoploss value will be applied to open trades (and corresponding log-messages will be generated).
### Limitations
Stoploss values cannot be changed if `trailing_stop` is enabled and the stoploss has already been adjusted, or if [Edge](edge.md) is enabled (since Edge would recalculate stoploss based on the current market situation).