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What happens to your stop when you get out

Last checked 16 September 2026. Every cell says where it came from, and the ones nobody has tested say that instead of guessing.

A stop that did not fire is almost never a stop that failed. It was cancelled by the rules of its group, still sized for a position you no longer hold, or never active. Which depends on how you got out and how the stop was placed: this grid.

01Two kinds of stop, and they are not the same order

A stop you placed on its own is an order with its own quantity; it does not know a position exists.

A stop attached at entry, a bracket's child, is held until the parent fills, then sits in a one-cancels-all group with the take-profit.

Everything below turns on that.

02The grid

documented
Quoted from IBKR's own pages, or plainly left out of them.
reported, untested
Traders describe it in public. We have not tested it.
not documented anywhere
No page we have read says, so the cell says unknown.
How you got outA stop you placed on its ownA stop attached at entry
Close Portion of Positions, by hotkey documented by omission Untouched. It keeps its original quantity: sell half and you hold an order to sell more than you own. IBKR's pages on closing positions never mention an existing stop. reported, untested Traders describe the attached stop being deactivated for the portion they kept, leaving it unprotected. We have not tested it.
Reverse Position, by hotkey not documented anywhere No IBKR page we have read says what this does to a resting stop, and no third-party page does either. Unknown. not documented anywhere Unknown, for the same reason.
Selling part of the position by hand documented by omission Untouched, as above: the stop keeps the quantity you gave it. reported, untested The same report as the hotkey, and the same absence of a test.
The take-profit child fills completely does not apply: a stop placed on its own has no take-profit child documented Cancelled, by design. IBKR's attached-orders page: "Once the parent order fills, the opposite side profit taker and stop loss orders are triggered. When one fills, the other is canceled."
The take-profit child fills partially does not apply: a stop placed on its own has no take-profit child documented, and it is a setting It depends on the OCA choice in your order preset. IBKR gives three: reduce the others by the filled quantity, reduce them with overfill protection, or cancel them all. On the third, a take-profit that fills half your position cancels the stop on the half you still hold.
Cancelling the parent before it fills does not apply: a stop placed on its own has no parent order documented The children were never active. IBKR's API documentation: a child is kept on hold "until its parent fills", and becomes active only "once the parent order is completely filled". What TWS shows for them afterwards is on no IBKR page we read: open the Orders panel and look.
The broker liquidates you documented The position goes and the working orders go with it. You are flat; there is nothing left to protect. documented The same.

03The one nobody has written down

Reverse Position is the gap in the grid, and the gap everywhere else. IBKR's hotkey guide describes the order: long 100 and a full reversal leaves you short 100, and "a percentage of 50% in the same example will result in you being short 50".

A trader who uses it daily says he sets 25 to sell half, and that pressing it again halves what is left. Both accounts are public. Neither says what it does to a stop already resting on the position.

If you have tested it in paper, that answer is worth more than this page. It is why two cells say unknown: a matrix that fills its gaps is worse than none, because somebody will trade on it.

04What to do, whichever row you are on

  • Check the stop's quantity the moment a partial fill confirms. Nothing in TWS tells you it is now wrong.
  • Know which kind of stop you use before you bind a hotkey to a partial exit. One is left too big, the other is switched off.
  • Set the OCA behaviour in your preset on purpose. One of the three choices cancels your stop on a partial take-profit.
  • Test it in paper first. Every cell marked untested is one you can settle yourself in ten minutes.

05Where this came from

The documented rows are quoted from IBKR's order-type, attached-order, preset and API pages, set out at length in the guide on bracket orders and the guide on hot keys. The reported rows are traders describing it in public, marked as reports because that is what they are.

Also free: the daily loss budget calculator; your stops, read from a Tradovate export. Guides by RSS.