Lost way more than my stop loss on Bitget

I usually set my stop losses at about $50, but recently I ended up losing a lot more than that on two trades with Bitget. Both were in 'USDT-M Futures' and involved the PI-USDT pair. One trade cost me $150, and the other set me back $87... I used to trade on Bybit and never had this issue, so I'm curious about why it happened on Bitget. Is it because there aren't many traders on the 'PI' pair on Bitget? If I had traded something more popular like BTC or ETH, would it have been different? Or is there another explanation?

None of these your assumptions could have been the cause or reason to your experienced with your SL going beyond your purportedly $50 set SL in your trade. How do you know there are not many traders trading Pi? Perhaps you must have missed it at the point you placed your SL thinking it was going to be $50 loss at most. How is it you're trading other pairs and not getting same experiences, don't you think it might not be from bitget but your own mistake. Anyway, sorry about your losses.

Here's what Bitget support had to say.... note their line "At that time, the price fluctuated greatly, so it was normal for the closing price to slip."..... I would be ok with a small bit of slippage but when I set my stop loss to $50 and I lose $150 I don't think $100 of slippage is acceptable!! Dear valued customer,   Greetings from Bitget.   PIUSDT long，quantity：6853 stop loss：0.9251 close price：0.9191，close time：2025/3/25  02:48:23 UTC+9 average entry price：0.9307 realized pnl：（close price- average entry price）*quantity=-79.1372 trading fee：-7.6065（open+close） funding fee：-0.32243365 net profit：realized pnl+trading fee+funding fee=-87.0663   PIUSDT long，quantity：6026 stop loss：0.9389 close price：0.9231，close time：2025/3/24  22:09:39 UTC+9 average entry price：0.9474 realized pnl：（close price- average entry price）*quantity=-146.4318 trading fee：-4.4793（open+close） net profit：realized pnl+trading fee=-150.9112   The above two orders were successfully closed after reaching the stop loss price. The system triggers the stop loss price before closing the position. At that time, the price fluctuated greatly, so it was normal for the closing price to slip. If you want to close the position at a specified price, you can set a limit order.

You traded a very volatile futures contract. When creating a stop loss, Watch the type of order you make. Stop Limit order vs stop loss order Stop limit order - creates a limit order and the position gets closed at exactly the price you set. If the market moves so fast before your limit order is triggered, it won't be executed. Stop loss order - order gets executed at market price. If you market moves so fast, you will find your order getting executed away from the actual price you had set Which type of stop order did you use? https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/021015/what-difference-between-stop-order-and-stop-limit-order.asp

In your case, the problem is that there wasn't enough liquidity to execute your stop loss.  Thus, your order was closed gradually, as counter orders placed by other traders became available. You can avoid this if you set a stop-market rather than a stop-limit.

Stop limit orders never get executed away from the set price. They only get executed at the set price. Worst case scenario if the market was moving so fast and the stop limit order wasn't triggered in time, no execution would have happened and OP would have been left holding a losing position until the price came back up or even get the position liquidated. For OP's case, I am guessing he used the stop order(market) and due to slippage caused by the fast moving market, his position got closed away from the price he wanted thus that huge loss.

I don't think if a limit order is the issue here, what he's talking about is the SL stop-loss order. @OP How exactly did you adjust your stop-loss? What I think is your stop-loss is set to a partial amount because that is the default one. If I'm right, this is your mistake; it could lead to further loss if the price is beyond your stop loss. It is sometimes liquidated if you are using isolated. So check that order if you set the stop loss partially or full amount. I sometimes experience this issue that leads to further losses. Or this might be because of the slippage it can happen on rapid price fluctuate that leads to further losses. That's normal it could also happen on other exchanges.

It was for the full amount so this was not the issue.... thanks for the suggestion though

Thanks for the replies... Yes this is what happened (i.e "he used the stop order(market) and due to slippage caused by the fast moving market, his position got closed away from the price he wanted thus that huge loss.") I assume it must have been a liquidity problem as tvplus006 suggested.... Does this mean it would not have happened if I'd have been trading a bigger coin such as BTC or ETH (due to higher liquidity)? And if that's the case I assume that means Bybit has higher liquidity when trading smaller coins/tokens as this never happened to me when I traded on Bybit? Or, was this just simply 2 very rare occasions when the market dropped alarmingly quickly and I was just extremely unlucky?

If it was set to full amount then I don't see any other issue here than slippage and rapid price fluctuate. If that's what happen your SL position will trigger or executed on different rate it happens to me when I trade on Binance before but I switch to OKX. I never experience that issue on OKX exchange.

Probably caused by fast price movement here. I got liquidated like this many time not only in 1 or 2 exchange but almost all of them when trading high volatile coins. Basically it works like this, you set SL ->  SL triggerred but price moved so fast it dumped or pumped far away from your SL price ->  order fulfilled at that price and as a result you get so much lose. Even millisecond difference matters here. This is why i trade isolated margin for altcoin with high volatility.

Of course, the trading volume and, consequently, the liquidity is higher on Bybit, and this is confirmed by the Coinmarketcap rating data - https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/derivatives/ But nevertheless, at the moment no exchange can compare with the Binance exchange, which I would recommend for trading.

Well, I think all the different exchanges we have usually operate differently, since I started trading, I have not had this experience with bybit and Digifinex exchange but there was such a similar experience I had on coinstor exchange while trading on future there too. I have tried some other exchange that didn't give me a good result like the current exchange am using now. On bybit exchange which I use more frequently, once you set a "stop lose" at any specific price, that's exactly the price that the market will stop you out, there's nothing like too much volatility. Even if the market becomes so volatile, once it gets to your Mark, your trade will close. @OP, sorry for your lose but this simply means you should use the bybit which you said you have not had such experience there.

I've become a victim of such accident on Binance in 2021. I had set a stop loss but I got completely liquidated because the price got significantly pumped and dumped within seconds, which was enough to liquidate me but the funny part is that price became normal after a few seconds, btw Binance closed my position and liquidated me. This was a lesson for me and I started to believe that rumors were true, exchanges artificially pump and dump the price to liquidate customers and generate profit. Take it as a lesson and never trade on futures again, especially with increased leverage and short positions. Just buying and holding the coin is the best and safest approach (withdraw to your wallet for more safety).

Agreed through and through. The more funds there are that are not yours but are used still, the more likely such a thing would be happening, especially on smaller coins.

Lesson: Don't get attracted to platforms that promises golden returns when you trades in their platforms. If Bybit was serving you better why did you left it for Bitget? Perhaps you didn't tell your reason which i believed it's best known to you. Information: when seeking for platform to trade on, do consider reputation and their community network scalability.

It depends on buy orders on that exchange and if there was not enough buy orders, your sell order (with stoploss order) will be executed at lower prices. Sometimes when the market is crashing, there is potentially Cascade effects from market liquidations that can cause bigger loss than you expect to have with your stop loss order. To prevent failure of a stop loss order as well as reduce impact from any Cascade effect, there is a better order for your practice in future - a Stop limit order. https://academy.binance.com/lt/articles/what-is-a-stop-limit-order https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/091813/which-order-use-stoploss-or-stoplimit-orders.asp

All gold is usually in a trap of sorts, we just don't see it as one before it's too late.

Yeah, when the liquidity is thin, that scenario is very likely to happen. This is why I hate trading those brand-new contracts of meme coins and tokens. Before you start trading you have to keep an eye on the order book and trading volume or else you will be fucked. In fact, some exchanges even put warnings right after you open the trading pair stating that trading very volatile assets is very risky. I believe you must have seen such warnings. It's almost equal to gambling.

Is there evidence to support this conclusion? IMO, PI is likely a low-liquidity coin on Bitget, indicating that there are fewer buyers and sellers at each price level. When you place a stop-loss order, if the price moves rapidly or gaps below your stop price, your order may execute at a less favorable price than anticipated, resulting in a larger loss.  This is most likely known as slippage in trading. I believe you should consider using limit stop orders whenever possible or avoid low-liquidity pairs if you desire more predictable exits.