Placing a market order means you are choosing to buy or sell assets at the current best available price.
The more time passes, the more likely it is that the Bid and Ask prices will shift gears. Market conditions and market volatility are the two determining factors in calculating these prices.
Limit entry orders function on the basis of buying below or selling above the market at a specific price. They are a type of pending order, meaning that they are not executed until certain conditions are fulfilled. Should those conditions never be reached, the order is cancelled and is never executed. Generally, when the market is trending down, a sell limit order is placed at or above the current market price.
In times when the market is up-trending, a buy limit order is usually placed at or below the market price at the time.
If you trade stock and forex CFDs, limit orders are something you may already be familiar with.The ever-changing market of forex, in particular, is one where the utmost attention is required during large portions throughout the day. That’s where this automated trading system that MT4 offers comes in. Once you have placed your limit order (that may be in conjunction with stop-loss and take-profit orders if you are a day trader), you don’t have to spend hours monitoring graphs and charts waiting for the right time to enter or exit trades.
Place and cancel limit orders
MetaTrader 4allows you to trade on both desktop and mobile (Android and iOS). All the features of the trading platform are available through any of the apps.
If you’re going for the mobile version, placing a limit order requires four steps:
- Touch the top right-hand symbol – a white page with a green plus – to open the order terminal.
- Tap the Market Execution order type to display the full list of pending order types.
- Select Buy Limit or Sell Limit and set the parameters.
- Once you’re ready, tap on the Place button that should now be usable.
On desktop, the process is the same but with more options visible. The limit order details and the list of parameters remain unchanged.
Cancelling a limit order is just as simple. This time, let’s do it on desktop:
- Maximize the Trade tab or simply open it if it is not minimized to show all current open orders.
- Locate the Type column and choose the limit order you wish to cancel.
- Press the grey X button located to the right-hand side of the screen.
On mobile, the steps are almost the same. To open the Orders divider, you will have to look for it right below the Positions divider. From there, once you long-press the specific order, you can choose the Delete order option from the menu that will appear, and your pending limit order will be cancelled.
Trading on margin is high risk.
