Trading from a phone
The width of the chart decides the size of the stop
A phone chart shows a narrow window of price. The same instrument on a desktop can show months of daily candles. The difference is not the size of the screen. It is the number of hours the candles cover. A stop placed from a narrow window sits close to the current price. A stop placed from a wide window sits further away. The market does not know which window you used.
Volatility is the distance price travels in a normal hour. On a phone chart that distance fills a large part of the screen. On a daily chart the same distance is a thin line. If you set a stop at the edge of the phone screen, you are setting it at a distance the market covers routinely. The stop is then hit by ordinary movement, not by a change in direction.
A wider view gives the stop room to survive that ordinary movement. It also makes the stop larger in pips. A larger stop means a smaller position for the same risk. The phone encourages the opposite: a tight stop and a large position, because the tight stop looks safe on the small screen. The chart, not the screen, should set the stop. Then the position size follows from the stop.
What a small screen hides about the cost of a mistake
Every trade has a cost before the market moves. The spread is the gap between the buy price and the sell price. On EUR/USD around 1.0850 the spread might be one pip or less, but it varies between brokers and between hours. A phone app often shows the spread as a number, not as a distance on the chart. The number is easy to ignore. The distance is not.
Commission and swap are the other costs. Commission is charged per lot on some accounts. Swap is charged when a position is held overnight. Both vary between brokers and are not set by the SEC Philippines. On a phone these charges appear in a separate screen. You see them after the trade, not before. That delay makes a small loss look smaller than it is.
The gross amount in pesos is not what reaches the account. Take 20 pips on 0.10 lots of EUR/USD. One pip on 0.10 lots is about ₱1, so the gross is about ₱20. If the spread is one pip, the cost is about ₱1. If commission is added, the net is lower again. The phone shows the gross first. The account shows the net.
Orders that survive a closed app
A phone can lose signal, run out of battery, or be put down. An order that depends on you watching the screen does not survive those events. A stop-loss order and a take-profit order live on the broker's server. They work when the app is closed. They work when the phone is off. They are the only orders that do not need your attention.
A trailing stop moves the stop as price moves in your favour. On a phone it is easy to set and easy to cancel by accident. The app may ask for confirmation, or it may not. The rule is the same as for any order: set it once, from the wide chart, and leave it. Checking it every few minutes on a small screen turns a plan into a reaction.
Pending orders, such as a buy limit or a sell stop, wait for a price you choose in advance. They are placed from the same chart. If the chart is narrow, the price you choose is close to the current price. If the chart is wide, the price is chosen from a level that has mattered before. The order type does not change the need for a wide view.
What survives on a 6-inch screen: 20 pips on 0.10 lots
| Step | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Instrument and price | EUR/USD around 1.0850 | the quote used in this lesson |
| One pip on one standard lot | 10 units of the quote currency | 100,000 x 0.0001 |
| One pip on 0.10 lots | 1 unit of the quote currency | 10 x 0.10 |
| One pip on 0.10 lots in pesos | about ₱1 | 1 unit converted at the current rate, which moves |
| 20 pips on 0.10 lots in pesos | about ₱20 | 1 x 20 |
| Visible price range on the phone | the last few hours | schematic; the exact range depends on the app and the zoom level |
| Visible price range on the desktop | several weeks | schematic; the exact range depends on the platform and the zoom level |
The broker may round the conversion, charge a spread on entry and exit, and add commission or swap, so the amount that reaches the account can differ from the figures above.
Doing it once, step by step
The following steps set up a phone trade from a wide chart, so the stop and the position size come from the market rather than from the screen. Do them in order before you place any order.
- 01
Open the chart and pinch out
Open EUR/USD in the app. Pinch out until the chart shows the widest range the app allows, or switch to a daily view. This is the view you will use for every decision. Do not place an order from the default view.
- 02
Mark the recent high and low
Find the highest high and the lowest low on the wide chart. These are the levels the market has respected. A stop placed beyond them has room to survive normal movement. A stop placed inside them is inside noise.
- 03
Choose the stop distance in pips
Measure from the current price to a point just beyond the high or low you marked. That distance is your stop in pips. Write it down. This number does not change when you switch back to a narrow view.
- 04
Set the position size from the stop
Decide the maximum you are willing to lose on the trade in pesos. Divide that amount by the value of one pip on your chosen lot size. The result is the largest position you may take. If the number is smaller than your usual size, use the smaller number.
- 05
Place the stop and take-profit orders
Enter the trade with a market order or a pending order. Immediately attach a stop-loss at the distance you measured. Attach a take-profit at a level from the wide chart. Both orders stay on the broker's server when the app is closed.
- 06
Check the costs before you confirm
Look at the spread, commission, and swap shown in the order screen. These vary between brokers and are not set by the SEC Philippines. Subtract them from the gross amount you expect. If the net is not acceptable, do not confirm the order.
The mistake most people make here
The common mistake is to treat the phone chart as a smaller version of the desktop chart. It is not smaller; it is shorter. The same EUR/USD move that looks like a full screen on a phone can be a single candle on a desktop, so a stop placed from the phone may sit inside noise that the desktop view would have shown as normal. Before placing an order, pinch out to the widest range the app allows, or check the same pair on a larger screen, and set the stop from that wider view rather than from the last hour.Check yourself
EUR/USD is around 1.0850. You trade 0.10 lots and the price moves 20 pips in your favour. What is the gross amount in pesos, before costs?
One pip on one standard lot is 10 units of the quote currency, so one pip on 0.10 lots is 1 unit. At the current rate that is about ₱1. 20 pips x ₱1 = about ₱20.
The same 20-pip move happens on 1.00 standard lot instead of 0.10 lots. What is the gross amount in pesos?
One pip on 1.00 standard lot is 10 units of the quote currency, about ₱10. 20 pips x ₱10 = about ₱200.
Your phone chart shows only the last few hours. Name one thing you can do before deciding on a stop.
Zoom out to the widest range the app allows, or open the same pair on a larger screen, and set the stop from that wider view.
Questions that come up next
How much of the chart does a phone app actually show?
It varies by app and by the timeframe you choose. On a six-inch screen at the shortest timeframe you may see only the last few hours of price. At a daily timeframe the same screen can show months, because each candle covers a whole day. The limit is the number of candles the app fits on the screen, not the size of the screen itself. So the window is set by the timeframe as much as by the phone.
What is a stop order?
A stop is an instruction to close the trade at a price you choose in advance. It sits in the app, not in your head, so it works while the app is closed. The distance between your entry price and the stop price is the amount you are willing to lose on that trade. A stop placed from a narrow chart sits close to the current price and is hit by ordinary movement.
What is the difference between gross and net on a phone app?
Gross is the amount the price move is worth before any cost is taken out. Net is what is left after the spread, and after commission or swap if your account has them. A phone app often shows the gross figure first and the costs on a separate screen. So the number you see while the trade is open is larger than the number that reaches the account.
How much is one pip on EUR/USD in pesos?
One pip on one standard lot is 10 units of the quote currency. At around 1.0850 that is about ₱10. On 0.10 lots it is about ₱1, and on 0.01 lots about ₱0.10. Your broker converts the amount and may round it, so the figure on your statement can differ slightly.
Can I set the stop from a wider chart if my phone will not zoom out?
Yes. Open the same pair on a larger screen, or on the same app at a longer timeframe, and read the distance there. Then place the order on the phone using the stop price you worked out from the wider view. The order is the same order whichever screen sends it. What changes is the view you used to choose the price.
Does the SEC Philippines set the spread or the commission?
No. The SEC Philippines registers and supervises certain firms that offer these products, but it does not set the spread, the commission or the swap rate. Those are set by each broker and they vary between brokers and between hours. Read the fee schedule of the firm you use, because the figures are not the same everywhere.
In the Philippines
- Regulator
- SEC Philippines
- Money
- peso, written ₱ (PHP)
- Common funding methods
- GCash and bank transfer
- Instrument in this lesson
- EUR/USD around 1.0850
- Pip value basis
- one pip on one standard lot of EUR/USD is 10 units of the quote currency, converted at the current rate
The words used on this page
- Spread
- The gap between the price at which you can buy and the price at which you can sell. It is a cost you pay on entry, and it varies between brokers and between hours.
- Swap
- A charge applied when a position is held overnight. It varies between brokers and is not set by the SEC Philippines.
- Commission
- A fee charged per lot on some account types, separate from the spread. Whether it applies depends on the account you opened.
- Volatility
- The distance price travels in a normal hour. On a narrow chart that distance fills much of the screen, which makes ordinary movement look larger than it is.
- Timeframe
- The length of time each candle on the chart represents. A daily timeframe shows months of price on the same screen that a short timeframe fills with a few hours.
- Position size
- The number of lots you trade. A wider stop needs a smaller position to keep the risk on the trade the same.
What to take away
- A phone chart is shorter, not smaller: the timeframe decides how many hours of price you see.
- A stop set from a narrow window sits inside ordinary movement; set it from the widest view you can reach.
- A wider stop means a smaller position for the same risk, so the chart sets the size, not the screen.
- The app shows the gross figure first; the spread, commission and swap arrive later and vary between brokers.