A stop order on Robinhood lets you automatically buy or sell a stock or ETF when its price reaches a level you choose. It can be useful if you want to sell an investment when its price starts falling without having to watch the market all day.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to set a stop order on Robinhood, choose your stop price, set an expiration time, and submit your order. You’ll also learn an important detail that many investors overlook: a stop price is not a guaranteed selling price.
What Is a Stop Order on Robinhood?
A stop order is an instruction that activates when an investment reaches a specific price. Once triggered, Robinhood converts the order into a market order, which attempts to execute at the best available market price.
There are two common types of stop orders:
- Sell stop order: Triggers a market sell order when a stock or ETF falls to your chosen stop price. Investors often use it to help manage downside risk or protect gains.
- Buy stop order: Triggers a market buy order when a stock or ETF rises to your chosen stop price. Traders may use it when they want to enter a position after the price moves above a certain level.
For this tutorial, we’ll focus on a sell stop order. The same general process applies to a buy stop order, but you’ll select Buy instead of Sell and typically set your stop price above the current market price.
Step 1: Find the Stock or ETF You Want to Trade
Open Robinhood and find the stock or ETF you want to place a stop order on.
If you’re placing a sell stop order, you’ll need to select an investment you already own. For a buy stop order, find the investment you want to purchase.
In this example, we’ll use the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD). The example investment is trading at approximately $32.78, but your screen will show the current market price when you place your order.
Tap the investment to open its details page. You’ll see its current price and other information about its performance.
Next, tap the orange Trade button at the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Select Sell and Open the Order Types Menu
Since we’re setting up a sell stop order, tap Sell.
Robinhood will initially display the market order screen. You may see options to sell a specific dollar amount or sell all your shares.
Don’t submit the order yet. A regular market order attempts to sell your shares at the current available market price, which isn’t what we want for this example.
Instead, look for the order type selector in the top-right corner of the screen, where it may display Dollars. Tap it to open the full menu of order types.
You’ll see different ways to place a sell order, including selling in dollars, selling shares, and selecting specific tax lots. The menu also includes conditional orders.
Under Conditional Orders, select Stop Order.
This opens the screen where you can enter the price that will trigger your sell order.
Step 3: Choose Your Stop Price
The next screen asks you to set your stop price. Robinhood explains that the order will trigger a market sell order if the investment falls to your selected price.
This is the most important step when setting a stop order on Robinhood.
Let’s say SCHD is currently trading at $32.78. For this demonstration, we’ll set the stop price at $31.
Enter $31 in the stop price field and tap Continue.
Here’s what this means:
- If the price stays above $31, the sell order remains inactive.
- If the price reaches $31, the stop order triggers.
- Once triggered, Robinhood converts the order into a market sell order.
The purpose is to automate your decision to sell if the price falls to a level you’ve chosen in advance.
However, setting a stop price doesn’t guarantee that you’ll sell at that exact price. We’ll explain why shortly.
Step 4: Set the Time in Force
After choosing your stop price, Robinhood asks you to select the order’s time in force. This determines how long your order remains active if the stop price isn’t reached.
Depending on the available options, you may see the following choices.
Good for the Day
A day order remains active for the current trading day. If the stop price isn’t reached before the order expires, the order is canceled.
This option can make sense if you only want the stop order to apply during that trading session.
Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC)
A Good ‘Til Canceled order remains active until it’s triggered, canceled, or reaches its expiration date.
In this example, Robinhood displays an expiration date approximately 90 days away. The exact expiration date and available duration can vary depending on the order and current platform rules.
GTC can be convenient if you don’t want to recreate your stop order every trading day. However, it also means you need to remember that the order is still active.
For example, if you set a stop price of $31 and leave the order active, a later price drop could trigger the sale even if you haven’t opened Robinhood in weeks.
Choose the time in force that suits your plans, then tap Continue.
Step 5: Choose How Many Shares to Sell
Robinhood will now show the sell order screen, where you can select the number of shares you want to sell.
Your account information and available shares should appear near the bottom of the screen.
For this example, we’ll enter one share.
Review the order details before continuing. You should see your selected quantity, the $31 stop price, and the order’s expiration date.
Robinhood may also display an estimated credit of $31. This is an estimate based on the stop price, not a promise that you’ll receive exactly $31 for the share.
If you need to change the stop price, quantity, or other order details, tap Edit Order and make your adjustments.
Once everything looks correct, tap Preview.
Step 6: Review and Submit Your Stop Order
The preview screen summarizes your order before you submit it.
Check the following details carefully:
- Investment: Make sure you’ve selected the correct stock or ETF.
- Quantity: Confirm how many shares you want to sell.
- Stop price: Verify that the trigger price is correct.
- Time in force: Check when the order expires.
- Estimated credit: Review the estimated proceeds, keeping in mind that the final amount may differ.
Pay particular attention to Robinhood’s order warning. It explains that when the investment reaches your stop price, the order converts to a market order and may not execute at the stop price.
This distinction matters because a stop order triggers a sale but doesn’t guarantee the execution price.
If all the details are correct, swipe up to submit the order.
Robinhood should then confirm that your stop order has been placed.
You’ll see the number of shares sold, which may show zero out of one. That’s normal because the order has only been submitted. Your shares haven’t been sold yet.
The order is waiting for the investment to reach your stop price.
Tap Done when you’re finished.
How Does Stop Order Execution Price Work?
Before using a stop order on Robinhood, it’s important to understand the difference between the stop price and the actual selling price.
Your stop price determines when the order activates. The market price determines the price at which the resulting market order executes.
Let’s return to our example:
Suppose SCHD is trading at $32.78 and you set a sell stop order at $31.
If the price gradually falls to $31 and there are buyers available near that price, your order may execute close to $31.
However, imagine that significant negative news comes out overnight and SCHD opens the next morning at $29. If the order is triggered during eligible trading hours, the market sell order may execute around $29 instead of $31.
In that situation, you would receive approximately $29 per share rather than the $31 you originally entered as your stop price.
This is known as slippage, and it can occur when market prices move quickly or available liquidity changes.
A stop order can help automate an exit, but it cannot guarantee a minimum selling price.
If you want to specify a minimum price at which you’re willing to sell, a stop-limit order may be worth considering. Unlike a regular stop order, a stop-limit order becomes a limit order after the trigger price is reached. However, it may not execute at all if the market moves past your limit price.
Step 7: View, Replace, or Cancel Your Stop Order
After submitting your stop order, you can check its status and manage it from Robinhood.
Open the order confirmation and tap View Order to see the details.
Robinhood may label your order as a stop loss sell. The order details typically include:
- The account used for the transaction.
- The order’s current status.
- The date the order was submitted.
- The number of shares included.
- The stop price.
- The time in force and expiration date.
If the status says Placed, that means the order has been submitted and is waiting for its trigger conditions to be met. It doesn’t mean your shares have been sold.
At the bottom of the order details screen, you may see options to replace or cancel the order.
How to Replace a Stop Order
If you want to change your stop price, select Replace Stop Order.
Follow the prompts to adjust the order details, then review the updated information before submitting the replacement.
For example, if your original stop price was $31, you might decide to change it to $30.50. Make sure the new price reflects your investment plan rather than simply reacting to every small price movement.
How to Cancel a Stop Order
If you no longer want the order to remain active, select Cancel Order and follow the confirmation steps.
You might cancel an order if your investment strategy changes or you decide to sell your shares another way.
Always check the order status after making changes. If an order has already triggered or executed, canceling it may no longer be possible.
Final Thoughts
Setting a stop order on Robinhood is relatively straightforward once you know where to find the order types menu.
To recap, open your stock or ETF, tap Trade, select Sell, choose Stop Order, enter your stop price, set the time in force, choose how many shares to sell, and review the order before submitting it.
The most important thing to remember is that your stop price is a trigger, not a guaranteed selling price. Because Robinhood converts a regular stop order into a market order when triggered, the final execution price may be higher or lower than the stop price you selected.
Before placing a stop order on Robinhood, make sure you understand the risks, check the expiration date, and review your active orders periodically so you don’t leave an order running longer than intended.
