On the Forex market traders speculate according to simple principle “buy cheap, sell expensive”. A trade order is the unit of the commodity-market relations, it is also called trade, deal or trading position.
To buy or sell a currency, you should open/place an order in the trading platform. You can do it in a simple and even in several ways in MetaTrader 4. Let’s choose the most convenient.
Content
- Market orders. How do they work?
- How to open a market order in MetaTrader 4?
- Opening market order with “One-Click-Trading”
- How to modify an order?
- How to close an open order?
To begin with, there are 2 types of forex orders – pending and market.
A pending order is a request to buy or sell a financial instrument in the future at the price specified by the trader. When the price reaches the indicated level, the trade is opened automatically. And there`s no need to be at this moment at the computer.
Market orders. How do they work?
For example, a trader wants to buy EUR/USD right now. To do this, he needs to open a market order to buy eurodollar. He goes into the terminal and click “New Order”, sets the parameters of the order and sends an order to buy by clicking “Buy by market”. The broker sends a request for execution. But the price may change during the request execution. And then all depends on the execution type used by the broker. At Instant Execution broker offers new prices: the client receives a notification – the so-called requotes. The trader accepts the new price or cancel the order execution. If it is Market Execution, the order is executed in any case, even if the order price has changed during the order execution.
How to open a market order in MetaTrader 4?
You can open an order in several ways. Choose the best one to stamp trades blindly.
Method 1. In the toolbar.
Method 2. In the context menu.
Method 3. In the “Market Watch” window.
Right-click or double-click on the currency pair and select the “New Order” from the drop-down list.
Method 4. On the chart.
Right-click on the chart, and then go to “Trading” -> “New Order”.
Method 5. The F9 key.
Once you click the “New Order” the “Order” window will be opened. Here you should fulfill the following fields:
- The symbol – here is selected the symbol of currency pair you clicked on. But you can change it. To do this, choose the symbol you want to open from the drop down list.
- Volume – the lot size is specified here. You can select the standard volume from the drop down list or enter your own volume manually. The order size is calculated in lots on the Forex market. A standard lot is equal to 100 000 units of base currency.
- Stop Loss (optional) is set to minimize the losses. The order is closed automatically when the price reaches a specified level.
- Take Profit (optional) is set to fix the profit. The order is closed automatically when the price reaches a specified level.
- Comment (optional) – here you can add a comment to the trade.
- Type – here you select the order type – pending or market.
If you have entered an invalid volume or have insufficient money on your account the “Sell” and “Buy” buttons will be grayed.
When all the parameters are set, click “Sell by Market” or “Buy by Market” depending on the position.
If the operation is correct, you will see the following screen:
Congratulations! You have successfully opened the order! To view the information on open order, go to the “Terminal” window and then in the “Trade” tab.
Opening market order with “One-Click-Trading”
There is a built-in “One-Click-Trading” function in MetaTrader 4. This means that you can open an order in just one click. Right-click on the chart and select “One-Click-Trading”. At the upper left of the chart the panel “One Click Trading” will appear, where you can view the current bid and ask prices, specify the desired volume and make a transaction by pressing the “Sell” or “Buy” button.
“One-Click-Trading” panel always changes its color.
Red – the current price is below the previous one.
Blue – the current price is higher than the previous one.
Gray – the price doesn`t change for 15 seconds.
It is important! After clicking the “Buy” or “Sell” button, your order is sent to the server without additional confirmation.
How to modify an order?
If desired, you can modify the Stop Loss and Take Profit levels in open order. To do this:
- Right-click on the order in the “Trade” tab.
- Select “Modify or Delete Order” in the context menu.
- Set the Take Profit and Stop Loss levels in the appeared window and click “Modify”.
How to close an open order?
If you want to fix the result of trade, close a market order. To do this:
- Go to the “Trade” tab in the “Terminal” window.
- Right-click on the open order.
- Select “Close order” in the context menu.
- After the window opens, where you can close an order. Click on the “Close” button.
The result of your trading will be displayed in the “Account history” tab.
You can also close an order in one click. Just click on the X in the line of the order in the “Profit” column.
So, we considered how to open, modify and close a market order. Regarding the pending orders, they are set in the same way as the market orders, but additional parameters are specified. What kind of parameters? We`ll talk about it in the following articles. Subscribe to our blog to stay updated.