Automated Stops

Got a question about stop losses. Do any UK based equity accounts offer automatic stop losses or is it necessary to manually place an order when the stop is hit? I have an etrade equity account and they do not offer the facility. For example I had a trade this week which dropped 4% in 10 minutes so I was unable to act. As I am only looking for quick swing trades of 3-4% at a time a 4% drop is significant.

I also trade some CFDs for shorts but they (igmarkets) do not offer stops any closer than 5% to the market price so that's not much use either.

How do other people manage with this?

I know Selftrade does on ordinary shares, i guess Barclays will do the same, i thought it would be pretty much standard.

But i dunno if they're guaranteed, selftrade lets you specify the lowest price to settle for below the target price. But if the maket gaps lower than the target price and the lowest price i dunno whether they will just liquidate it at best.

Thanks RPEX. I don't care too much abour guaranteed stops as you only end up paying extra for the guarantee part. I just want to know that if I am away doing something else and some bad news comes out I can preserve a decent part of my capital for another day.