Breakeven stop
A breakeven stop is a stop-loss moved to your entry price after the trade has gone in your favor, so the worst remaining outcome is roughly a zero-loss exit.
A common trigger is +1R — when open profit equals the amount originally risked (see R-multiple) — after which the trade can no longer lose the planned amount. "Roughly" zero is deliberate: an exit at entry still pays the spread and any commission, so many traders set the stop a couple of pips beyond entry to cover costs.
The trade-off is real. Price revisits entry levels constantly in normal fluctuation, and a stop moved to breakeven too early turns winners into scratches: the loss column shrinks, but so does the average win, and expectancy can fall. The breakeven stop is a tool for defending profits that exist, not for avoiding the discomfort of an open position.
Example
On a $100,000 account you risk 1% — $1,000 — buying 2 standard lots of EURUSD with a 50-pip stop ($20 per pip). Price rises 50 pips, so floating P&L is +$1,000, exactly +1R. Moving the stop to entry changes the range of outcomes from "−$1,000 to target" to "about $0 to target". If the take-profit sits 100 pips out (+$2,000), the remaining trade is a free shot at 2R.
In a prop-firm challenge
Breakeven stops pair naturally with challenge rules: a position that can no longer lose cannot contribute to the daily loss limit or push equity toward a breach, which is why they are popular for protecting a nearly finished phase. The cost shows up across the whole evaluation — clipped winners make an 8% profit target slower to reach. A reasonable middle path: move to breakeven only once the trade has earned it, at a defined R level written into the plan, not whenever the position makes you nervous.