Forex order types cheat sheet.
A market order fills now at the current price. A limit order waits for a better price: a buy limit below the market, a sell limit above it. A stop order waits for a worse price: a buy stop above, a sell stop below. Buy orders trigger on the ask, sell orders on the bid.
Here is every common order type with the price that must move before it fills, as a companion to the order types lesson.
Every order type in one table
| Order | Place it | Triggers when | Fills at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market buy | No price | At once | Best ask, can slip |
| Market sell | No price | At once | Best bid, can slip |
| Buy limit | Below the ask | Ask falls to it | Your price or better |
| Sell limit | Above the bid | Bid rises to it | Your price or better |
| Buy stop | Above the ask | Ask rises to it | Next price, can slip |
| Sell stop | Below the bid | Bid falls to it | Next price, can slip |
| Stop limit | Stop and limit price | Stop price is hit | Limit or better, or none |
| Stop loss | Losing side of entry | Bid (long) or ask (short) hits it | Next price, can slip |
| Take profit | Winning side of entry | Bid (long) or ask (short) hits it | Your level or better, usually |
| Trailing stop | Set distance behind price | Price turns back that far | As a stop loss |
A limit order waits for a better price than now, and a stop order for a worse one. Both are pending orders, unlike a market order, which fills at once.
Where each pending order sits around the price
Say EUR/USD shows a bid of 1.10000 and an ask of 1.10010, a 1 pip spread. These prices are illustrative.
- Buy stop at 1.10300: the ask rises 29 pips, from 1.10010.
- Sell limit at 1.10300: the bid rises 30 pips, from 1.10000.
- Buy limit at 1.09700: the ask falls 31 pips, from 1.10010.
- Sell stop at 1.09700: the bid falls 30 pips, from 1.10000.
Most platforms reject a pending order placed on the wrong side of the current price.
Bid or ask: which price fills your order?
Buy orders trigger on the ask and sell orders on the bid. That includes exits, since closing a long is a sell and closing a short is a buy.
Most charts plot the bid, including MetaTrader's default view. If the bid falls to 1.09700 with the ask at 1.09710, a sell stop at 1.09700 fills but a buy limit there still waits.
A short's stop loss watches the ask, so a spread that widens around news can trigger it before the chart line touches the level.
A full trade with entry, stop loss and take profit
You place a buy stop for 0.10 lot of EUR/USD at 1.10300, with a stop loss and a take profit.
- Pip value: 0.10 lot is 10,000 euros, and 10,000 × 0.0001 = $1.
- The ask rises to 1.10300 and the buy stop fills.
- The stop loss at 1.10100 triggers on the bid: 1.10300 minus 1.10100 = 20 pips, a $20 loss.
- The take profit at 1.10700 also triggers on the bid: 1.10700 minus 1.10300 = 40 pips, a $40 gain.
A triggered stop loss becomes a market order, so a fast drop could fill it at 1.10080: 22 pips, or $22. The pip value calculator does other pairs and sizes.
A trailing stop trails price by a fixed distance. With a 20 pip trail, a bid of 1.10500 pulls it to 1.10300, your entry. It never moves back.
Expiry, stop limits and linked orders
A pending order can be good till cancelled (GTC), staying until it fills or you delete it. It can also be a day order, ending with the trading day, or good till date (GTD), ending at a time you choose.
A stop limit places a limit order at a second price once the stop price is hit. It never fills worse than that limit, but a fast move can skip it entirely. MetaTrader 5 offers it; MetaTrader 4 does not.
One cancels the other (OCO) links two orders, such as a buy stop above a range and a sell stop below it. When one fills, the other is deleted. MetaTrader 4 and 5 have no built-in OCO type.
When an order fills differently from the plan
Forex pauses at the weekend, and the new week can open away from the old close. A sell stop at 1.09700 with the bid reopening at 1.09500 fills near 1.09500, 20 pips worse.
A buy limit at 1.09700 in that gap fills at your price or better.
Fast news can do the same. The difference between the price you asked for and the one you got is slippage, and it can go either way.
On instant execution accounts, the broker may answer a market order with a requote, a new price you can refuse. Test each order type on a demo account first.
Questions
What is the difference between a buy limit and a buy stop?
A buy limit sits below the ask and fills if price falls to it. A buy stop sits above the ask and fills if price rises to it.
Why did my buy limit not fill when the chart touched my price?
Charts usually show the bid, and a buy limit fills on the ask, which is higher by the spread.
Is a stop loss guaranteed to fill at my price?
No. It becomes a market order and can fill worse in a gap or fast market. Some providers sell a guaranteed stop for an extra charge.
Does a trailing stop work when my platform is closed?
In MetaTrader, no, because it runs in your terminal. The last stop level it set stays on the server.
Keep learning
Chapter 2How does a forex trade make or lose money?A forex trade makes money when the pair moves in your direction by more than the trade costs, and loses when it moves against you. A buy gains as the price rises and a sell gains as it falls. Profit is the price change times trade size, less commission and swap.
Chapter 2When do you buy or sell a currency pair?You buy a currency pair when you expect the first currency, the base, to strengthen against the second, and you sell when you expect it to weaken. If your view is about one currency, find which side of the pair it sits on: a weaker quote currency pushes the pair up, so you buy.
Chapter 2What is a pip in forex?A pip is the standard step traders use to measure price moves. On most currency pairs it is 0.0001, the fourth decimal place, and on pairs quoted in Japanese yen it is 0.01. A pipette is one tenth of a pip. On one standard lot of EUR/USD, each pip is worth $10.
Chapter 2What is a lot in forex?A lot is the unit used to set the size of a forex trade. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000. On EUR/USD that makes each pip worth $10, $1 and $0.10. Other instruments, such as gold, use their own contract size.
Chapter 2What is the spread in forex?The spread is the gap between the bid price you can sell at and the ask price you can buy at. You pay it on every trade, the moment you open it. On EUR/USD it is often one or two pips or less, and it widens around the daily rollover, the weekly open and big news.
Chapter 2What are the bid and ask prices in forex?Every forex quote has two prices. The bid is the price at which you can sell, and the ask is the higher price at which you can buy. The gap between them is the spread. You buy at the ask and close at the bid, so every new trade starts slightly behind by the size of the spread.
Chapter 2Forex terms you will hear every day.The everyday words of forex describe what a trade is doing and what it costs. Long means you bought, short means you sold. A pip is the standard price step, a lot is the trade size, the spread is the gap between bid and ask, and margin is the deposit your broker holds while a trade is open.
Chapter 2What types of orders can you place in forex?A market order buys or sells straight away at the current price. A pending order waits for a price you choose: a limit order waits for a better price, and a stop order joins a move once price breaks a level. Stop loss and take profit orders close an open trade at prices you set in advance.
Chapter 2What is a forex demo account, and how should you use it?A forex demo account is a practice account funded with virtual money. You trade on the broker's platform with live or near-live prices, so you can learn orders, stops and margin without risking your own cash. Set it up with the balance and leverage you would really use, and expect live fills and feelings to differ.
Chapter 2Can you get rich trading forex?A few people make large sums trading forex, but the loss figures that EU and UK brokers must publish show that most retail CFD accounts at those brokers lose money. Getting rich would need a large starting balance and years of steady returns. Small accounts chasing big targets usually take risks large enough to wipe them out.
Chapter 2Forex basics cheat sheet: pairs, pips, lots, leverage and margin.This cheat sheet sums up the forex basics chapter on one page. Each idea gets a short summary, its formula and a link to the full lesson. The quick reference tables let you check pip sizes, pip values, contract sizes and margin before you place a trade, and one worked trade ties everything together.
