Pending order
本頁目前僅提供英文版。
A pending order is an instruction to trade later, once price reaches a level you set. Limit orders wait for a better price than now; stop orders wait for price to break through a level. Until it triggers, no position is open.
A market order trades now. A pending order waits. You choose the price in advance, and the broker's server opens the trade only if the market gets there.
The four basic types
Each type pairs buy or sell with limit or stop. A limit waits for a better price than now; a stop waits for price to break through a level.
| Order | Placed | Triggers when |
|---|---|---|
| Buy limit | Below the current price | The ask falls to your price or lower |
| Sell limit | Above the current price | The bid rises to your price or higher |
| Buy stop | Above the current price | The ask rises to your price or higher |
| Sell stop | Below the current price | The bid falls to your price or lower |
MetaTrader 5 adds buy stop limit and sell stop limit orders, which place a limit order once a stop level is reached. You can also set an expiry, so an unused order is removed.
How a pending order fills
A limit order fills at your price or better. A stop order becomes a market order when triggered and fills at the next price, which in a fast market or a gap can be well past your level.
You can attach a stop loss and a take profit when you place the order. The exit plan is then ready the moment the position opens.
A worked example
Prices are illustrative. EUR/USD trades at 1.10000. You would like to buy a dip to 1.09800, 20 pips below, so you place a buy limit there.
If you expect a break above 1.10200 to start a rally, a buy stop there does that job instead.
Suppose the dip comes and the ask touches 1.09800. The buy limit fills at 1.09800 or slightly better. If price never falls that far, nothing happens, and you pay no spread or commission, because no trade opened.
常見問題
Do pending orders use margin?
The broker checks margin when you place the order and again when it triggers, and whether any is held while it waits depends on its settings. If free margin is too low at the trigger, the order is rejected.
What is the difference between a buy limit and a buy stop?
A buy limit sits below the current price and buys a dip. A buy stop sits above it and buys a breakout.
Leverage multiplies losses as well as gains; only trade money you can afford to lose.
本章節其他術語
Bid priceThe bid price is the price at which you can sell a currency pair right now. It is the lower of the two prices in every forex quote. You open a sell trade at the bid, and you close a buy trade at the bid.
Ask priceThe ask, or offer, is the price at which you can buy a currency pair right now. It is the higher of the two prices in every forex quote. You open a buy trade at the ask, and you close a sell trade at the ask.
PipA pip is the standard unit for measuring a change in a forex price. On most currency pairs it is 0.0001, the fourth decimal place, and on pairs quoted in Japanese yen it is 0.01. One tenth of a pip is called a pipette.
PipetteA pipette is one tenth of a pip, shown as the extra last digit of most forex quotes. On EUR/USD it is 0.00001, the fifth decimal, and on yen pairs such as USD/JPY it is 0.001. Traders also call it a fractional pip.
Pip valuePip value is the amount of money a one pip move adds to or takes from a position. It equals the pip size times the units traded, counted in the quote currency. On one standard lot of EUR/USD in a US dollar account it is $10.
LotA lot is the standard unit of trade size in forex. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000. MetaTrader shows these sizes as volumes of 1.00, 0.10 and 0.01.