[R-SIG-Finance] Clarification on trailing stop.

[Michael Chen]

Hi all,

I am little confused regarding the "prefer" setting in trailing stop orders (may also apply to normal orders).  Setting prefer = "High",  as presented in the Luxor example, means to me that the trailing stop is set at the preset threshold level less than the most recent high.  Default prefer is set for 'Close'.   Prefer= sets the price column to use from data object (mktdata),  but I also read from well-informed bloggers that setting prefer = 'Open' means that after the condition is satisfied, the execution of the order will be at the Open of next bar instead of the Close.  So, is "Prefer=" setting defines the data column to be used in the apply rule calculations or is it used for preference for the point of execution for the order?  or both?

thanks again and I apologize if this has been answered before.  my search didn't reveal anything.

Michael


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