How To Place Orders With A Forex Broker

When you place orders with a forex broker, it is extremely important that you know how to place them appropriately. Orders should be placed according to how you are going to trade - that is, how you intend to enter and exit the market. Improper order placement can skew your entry and exit points. In this article, we'll cover some of the most common forex order types.

Limit orders are commonly used to enter a market when you fade breakouts.

You fade a breakout when you don't expect the currency price to break successfully past a resistance or a support level. In other words, you expect that the currency price will bounce off the resistance to go lower, or bounce off the support to go higher.

For example, suppose that based on your analysis of the market, you think that USD/CHF's current rally move is unlikely to break past a resistance successfully. Therefore, you think that it would be a good opportunity to short when USD/CHF rallies up to near that resistance. You can then place a limit-sell order a few pips below that resistance level so that your short order will be filled when the market moves up to that specified price or higher.

Besides using the limit order to go short near a resistance, you can also use this order to go long near a support level. For instance, if you think that there is a high probability that USD/CHF's current decline will pause and reverse near a particular support level, you may want to take the opportunity to long when USD/CHF declines to near that support. In this case, you can place a limit-buy order a few pips above that support level so that your long order will be filled when the market moves down to that specified price or lower.

Limit orders are used to set your profit objective.

Before placing your trade, you should already have an idea of where you want to take profits should the trade go your way. A limit order allows you to exit the market at your pre-set profit objective. If you long a currency pair, you will use the limit-sell order to place your profit objective. If you go short, the limit-buy order should be used to place your profit objective. Note that these orders will only accept prices in the profitable zone.
Execute the Correct Orders
Having a firm understanding of the different types of orders will enable you to use the right tools to achieve your intentions - how you want to enter the market (trade or fade), and how you are going to exit the market (profit and loss). While there may be other types of orders, market, stop and limit orders are the most common of them all. Be comfortable using them because improper execution of orders can cost you money.