You can be right about where markets are headed and still be forced to sell into a steep drop before you are proven right. That is the whole case for a floor: a standing, broker-enforced exit that caps how far a position can fall, so a crash can't un-do a bet you were right about. Whether it's a nest egg you can't rebuild or a conviction position you can't afford to give back, it's the same standing order. Not a stock picker. Not advice. Just the floor under what you already hold.
First ask the honest question — are you already free? →Same price path, same crash at the end. The only variable is how tight you set your trailing stop. Move the slider and replay to see where the floor would have taken you out — and what the gain would have been if you'd just held.
Illustrative simulation on a fixed price path — not real market data, not a projection of returns. A trailing stop cannot prevent losses on overnight gaps or in fast-falling markets.
FloorPricer is a Claude MCP connector. You bring your own Claude subscription and brokerage API keys. We provide the execution harness.
An illustrative paper-trading session with made-up prices. It shows how the floor moves, not a result or a projection.
A crash you can wait out is a bad year. A crash while you're withdrawing is permanent — the shares you sell at the bottom never come back. Here's the mechanism, the danger it answers, and the honest way to use it.
Educational only — not investment or tax advice, and not a projection of returns. See full risk disclosure below.
Set a floor at X% below the highest price your position reaches. Every new high ratchets the floor up with it — but it never moves down. If the price falls through the floor, your broker sells automatically, before the drop deepens.
How the floor moves
A floor can't stop overnight gaps, and a triggered stop sells at the next market price — not exactly the floor. Illustrative only.
The same average return can leave you comfortable or broke depending on when the bad years hit. A crash in your first retirement years — while you're withdrawing — sells shares at the bottom that can never recover. It is the single biggest threat to a retirement.
Why the early crash is the fatal one
Sequence-of-returns risk concentrates in the first 5–10 years of retirement. A concept, not a guarantee.
A floor is one layer of protection — not a whole plan. Used well, alongside the rest of your strategy, it takes the catastrophic tail off the table without you having to watch the market or hope you'll act calmly in a panic.
How to fit it into a real plan
A floor can whipsaw you out before a recovery — it's for money you can't afford to watch fall, not for timing the market. Not advice.
The goal was never a bigger pile to die with. It's to protect enough that a crash can't rob you of the chance to spend it — in your one lifetime, on the things that outlast you: family, health, the people and causes you leave behind. The math of not losing is simply why protecting it matters.
The deeper the loss, the more impossible the recovery — and in retirement, while you're withdrawing, that recovery may never come. Avoiding the deep drawdown beats chasing the rebound, every time.
That asymmetry is why protection matters — not to hoard a number, but so nothing forces you to sell the future you were saving for. A floor under the core you can't afford to lose keeps a bad year from stealing your chance to use it well: to live it, give it, and leave something that compounds in people, not just portfolios.
See how the wealthy actually keep it — the money toolsAt the height of the dot-com bubble, Jeremy Grantham asked 400 full-time market analysts whether a return to normal valuations would guarantee a major bear market. All 400 said yes. Then he asked if they thought it would happen — 99% said yes. The crash they all saw coming, came. Yet the people representing their firms, on the podium beside him, told him: "Don't get excited. We'll muddle through quite nicely."
The engine room knew. The podium couldn't say it — telling clients to sell is suicidal for the business. A floor doesn't have a book of business to protect.
"You are on your own. Look at the data. A bubble is not hard to see."
A rule, not a salesman →
Set your floor in the simulator
"Get out of the most dangerous part — and do it now. Don't wait for help."
See six real crashes →
What a 15% floor would have done
"The bigger the bubble, the bigger the bust. A 70% decline would not be unexpected."
Set the floor before the top →
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Paraphrased from Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of GMO, on The Diary of a CEO, June 2026. FloorPricer is not affiliated with Mr. Grantham or GMO. Nothing here is investment advice.
Six well-known market events. The same question each time: what would happen if you had set a 15% trailing stop at the peak? Prices are approximate historical figures. This is for illustration only — past performance does not predict future results.
| Event | Peak → Trough | Max drawdown (no floor) | Exit with 15% floor | Drawdown avoided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 — COVID crash Feb–Mar 2020 |
3,386 → 2,237 | −34% | Exit ~−15% | ~19 pts avoided |
| NASDAQ — Dot-com collapse Mar 2000 – Oct 2002 |
5,048 → 1,114 | −78% | Exit ~−15% | ~63 pts avoided |
| S&P 500 — 2022 rate shock Jan–Oct 2022 |
4,796 → 3,577 | −25% | Exit ~−15% | ~10 pts avoided |
| Tesla (TSLA) — 2022 drawdown Nov 2021 – Jan 2023 |
share price | −75% | Exit ~−15% | ~60 pts avoided |
| S&P 500 — 2008 financial crisis Oct 2007 – Mar 2009 |
1,565 → 676 | −57% | Exit ~−15% | ~42 pts avoided |
| Meta (META) — 2022 collapse Sep 2021 – Nov 2022 |
share price | −77% | Exit ~−15% | ~62 pts avoided |
The honest caveat: A trailing stop exits you at the floor — which means you also exit before any recovery. In 2020, the S&P rebounded above its pre-crash high within five months. The floor is not "hold forever vs. lose everything" — it is a tool for people who cannot afford the full drawdown and want a defined exit rule, not a discretionary one. Peak-to-trough figures are approximate from public market data; intraday lows may vary. Trailing stops cannot prevent losses on overnight gaps.
The tax caveat Wall Street won't mention: a floor that triggers in a taxable brokerage account is a sale — it realizes your capital gains, and you may owe tax on them. The strategy is cleanest inside a Roth, IRA, or 401(k), where selling triggers no tax at all. If you hold highly appreciated positions in a taxable account, a defined exit and a defined tax bill are the same decision. This is not tax advice — ask a CPA before setting floors on large unrealized gains.
A tool you'd trust with your retirement should survive its own cross-examination. Straight answers — including the ones that don't flatter us.
You can practice a floor on paper today. Real-money execution at your own broker is still in development, and nothing here is for sale.
The harness is built. Paper trading via Alpaca works today — open your paper dashboard →. Live brokerage execution is still in development. Join the waitlist below and we'll email you once, when it opens.
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FloorPricer is a software tool that automates order execution based on rules you configure. It is not a financial advisor, broker-dealer, investment advisor, or registered investment adviser. Nothing on this site constitutes investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any security, or an offer to provide investment advisory services.
All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of all principal. Trailing stop strategies do not guarantee profits and will not prevent losses in rapidly declining markets or gaps. Past performance of any strategy shown on this site is hypothetical and illustrative only — it does not represent actual trading results and is not a guarantee of future performance.
Paper trading is provided for educational purposes only. Before trading with real money, understand the full mechanics of the strategy you are using. Consult a licensed financial professional if you are uncertain whether automated trading strategies are appropriate for your situation. FloorPricer is not affiliated with Alpaca Securities LLC or any other brokerage.