I've never used a trailing stop order on bitcoinica, but I assume it functions like a normal trailing stop order:

If you make a trailing stop sell order, your order will be executed once the price drops a certain amount, say X, (like a normal stop) but if the price rises first, then the peak of the value rise becomes the new upper limit and if the price falls by that set amount, 'X', from that peak your sell executes.

Its a little confusing on bitcoinica because you set the sell price rather than the price change (which i called X) which i think makes more sense since the sell price will vary if the price rises, but the change in price will remain constant...


For a trailing stop buy: change the word sell to buy, drop to rise, and upper limit to lower limit.