Orders¶

Create orders¶

There are several ways to create orders in cTrader:

• Click the New order button in the Chart toolbar at the top of the screen, or in the Trade Watch panel (ensure that either Positions or Orders tab is selected). The New order menu will pop up.
• Right-click the corresponding symbol in the Symbols list or on its chart, then select Place new order from the submenu. The New order menu will pop up.

• By using buy or sell Quick Trade buttons at the top of the chart of the desired symbol.

• By using the New order form in the Order tab of the Active Symbol Panel (ASP).

• By pressing F9 on the keyboard.

Create a market order¶

1. In the New order menu, select a symbol to trade.
2. Select a trading direction by clicking Sell or Buy.
3. Specify the Volume: the number of lots to be traded using the dropdown, the toggles or by typing the number.
4. Change the Market range to expand or narrow the price range within which your order will be filled.
5. Check the boxes to set and configure Stop loss and Take profit. These will apply to the corresponding position once the order is filled.
6. Optionally, type your comment in the Comment box.
7. Click Place order to create a market order.

Click the Price alert button to set a price alert.

Use the Collapse/expand button to collapse and expand the chart to the right.

Click the symbol Info icon to open the complete symbol details.

Alternatively, select the desired symbol in the New order menu of Active Symbol Panel, select a trading direction and specify the volume to be traded. Optionally, enable Market range, Stop loss and Take profit protections, then click Place order.

Create a limit order¶

To create a limit order, in the New order menu select Limit order.

1. Select a symbol to trade.
2. Select a trading direction by clicking Sell limit or Buy limit.
3. Specify Volume: the number of lots to be traded using the dropdown, the toggles or by typing in the number.
4. Set the Entry price at which you want your order to be filled.
   • The entry price cannot be higher than the current ask price if going long (buy) or lower than the current bid price if going short (sell).
   • Buy limit orders can only be executed at the limit price or lower.
   • Sell limit orders are executed at the limit price or higher.
5. Check the Expiry box and set the date and time when the pending order will automatically expire if it is not triggered by the entry price. If an order is triggered shortly before expiry, it will still be sent for execution and may be filled even after the selected expiry time. Pending orders without an expiry remain active until they are cancelled manually, unless triggered by the price.
6. Check the boxes to set and configure Stop loss and Take profit.
7. Click Place order to create a limit order.

Click the Price alert button to set a price alert.

Use the Collapse/expand button to collapse and expand the chart to the right.

Click the symbol Info icon to open the complete symbol details.

Alternatively, select the desired symbol in the New order menu of Active Symbol Panel and open the Limit tab. Select a trading direction, specify the Entry price and Volume to be traded, optionally enable Expiry, Stop loss and Take profit, then click Place order.

Create a stop order¶

To create a stop order in the New order menu select Stop order.

1. Select a symbol to trade.
2. Select a trading direction by clicking either the Sell stop or Buy stop buttons.
3. Set the Entry price that will trigger an order. The price cannot be lower than the current ask price if you are going long (buy), or higher than the current bid price if going short (sell).
4. Specify Volume: the number of lots to be traded using the dropdown, the toggles or by typing a number
5. Click the right arrow to select a way to trigger the order.
6. Check the Expiry box and set the date and time when the pending order will automatically expire if it is not triggered by the entry price. If an order is triggered shortly before expiry, it will still be sent for execution and may be filled even after the selected expiry time. Pending orders without an expiry remain active until they are cancelled manually, unless triggered by the price.
7. Check the boxes to set and configure Stop loss and Take profit.
8. Click Place order to create a stop order.

The right arrow is the trade side. Buy orders are triggered by the ask price and sell orders are triggered by the bid price.

The left arrow is the opposite side. Buy orders are triggered by the bid price and sell orders are triggered by the ask price.

The double right arrow is the double trade side. Similar to the trade side trigger, but two consecutive ticks of the respective price are required.

The double left arrow is the double opposite side. Similar to the opposite side trigger, but two consecutive ticks of the respective price are required.

Click the Price alert button to set a price alert.

Use the Collapse/Expand button to collapse and expand the chart to the right.

Click the symbol Info icon to open the complete symbol details.

Alternatively, select the desired symbol in the New order menu of Active Symbol Panel and open the Stop tab. Select a trading direction, specify the Entry price and Volume to be traded, optionally enable Expiry, Stop loss and Take profit, then click Place order.

Create a stop limit order¶

To create a stop limit order in the New order menu select Stop limit order.

1. Select a symbol to trade.
2. Select a trading direction by clicking either the Sell stop or Buy stop buttons.
3. Specify Volume: the number of lots to be traded using the dropdown, the toggles or typing in the number.
4. Set the Entry price that will trigger the limit order.

The Right arrow is the trade side. Buy orders are triggered by the ask price and sell orders are triggered by the bid price.

The Left arrow is the opposite side. Buy orders are triggered by the bid price and sell orders are triggered by the ask price.

The Double right arrow is the double trade side. Similar to the Trade Side trigger, but two consecutive ticks of the respective price are required.

The Double left arrow is the double opposite side. Similar to the Opposite Side trigger, but two consecutive ticks of the respective price are required.

Set Limit range (in pips) relative to the Entry Price.

This means that a stop limit order will be triggered only if the market reaches the stop price and will be filled only with the price determined by the limit range value (or a more preferable one).

Click the Price alert button to set a price alert.

Use the Collapse/expand button to collapse and expand the chart to the right.

Click the symbol Info icon to open the complete symbol details.

Alternatively, select the desired symbol in the New order menu of Active Symbol Panel, select the Stop limit tab, select a trading direction, specify the Entry price and Volume to be traded, set Limit range, optionally enable the Expiry, Stop loss and Take profit, then click Place order.

Manage pending orders¶

All pending orders are listed in the Orders tab of the Trade Watch panel. Here you can manage, modify and cancel pending orders.

To filter the orders by their direction, type, symbol or trading volume, type in the value, or its part, in the search box above the list of orders.

To filter the orders by their direction (buy or sell), click the Directions drop-down and select the desired direction.

Click the order Info button next to the desired order to open the Order info page. Click the X button next to an order to cancel it.

Right-click an order in the list to expand the additional order menu. Here you can:

• Cancel order – cancel the order.
• Modify order – open the Modify order menu.
• Open chart – open the current order symbol chart.
• Create new order – to open the create new order menu.

Modify pending orders¶

To make changes to an existing pending order, click the Cog icon next to the desired order in the orders tab of the Trade Watch panel.

In the Modify pending order menu the following options are available:

• Entry price – modify the entry price at which you wish to fill your order using the toggles or typing in the number. This price cannot be higher than the current ask price on the market if going long (buy), or lower than the current bid price if going short (sell).
• Quantity – modify the volume to be traded using the dropdown, the toggles or typing in the number.
• Expiry - set or modify the date and time when the pending order will automatically expire if it is not triggered by the entry price. Pending orders without an expiry remain active until they are cancelled manually, unless triggered by the price.

• Stop loss – set or modify the stop-loss protection.
• Take profit – set or modify the take-profit protection.
• Trailing stop loss – check to enable the trailing stop loss. The trailing stop is a stop loss that automatically updates every time the price of the position moves in your favour. This is a handy tool if you initially have underappreciated the market. A trailing stop loss never readjusts if the market moves against you.

When done, click Modify order to save changes.

Cancel pending orders¶

To cancel a pending order, in the Orders tab of Trade Watch, click the X button next to the desired order, or right-click on an order and select Cancel order from the dropdown.

Alternatively, click Cancel order in the Modify pending order menu.

To cancel all pending orders at once, click Cancel all in the upper-right of the Orders tab in Trade Watch.

Order information¶

Click the order Information button next to the desired order in the Orders tab of Trade Watch to view the detailed order information. The following information is available:

• Information – the trading asset lot value and lot units.
• Order ID – the unique order identifier.
• Status – the current status of the order.
• Requesting position – the position that has been requested for this order.
• Created position – the position created by this order.
• Position details – click to open Position info panel (if the order resulted in a position).
• Symbol – the financial instrument of this order.
• Direction – the direction of the order (buy or sell).
• Submitted quantity – the initial volume requested.
• Current quantity – the current volume requested (volume left to fill).
• Fill quantity – the amount of the volume filled.
• Order type – the type of the order.
• Fill price – volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of the deals used to fill this order.
• Submitted time – the exact date and time when the order was filled.
• Last modified – the exact date and time of the latest changes made to the order.
• Channel - the platform used to open the current order.
• Label – the tag that may be added by the cBot (cTrader Algo).
• Comment – the custom user comment that may be sent with the order.
• Submitted TIF – submitted Time In Force.
• Expiry – the exact date and time when a pending order will automatically expire if it is not triggered by the entry price.
• Spot price – the current price of the traded symbol on the market.
• Submitted price – the initial price set for the order.
• Trigger side – the current order trigger side (bid or ask price).
• Current distance – the difference between the spot price and submitted price.
• Limit range - the specific price range at which the limit order will be executed.
• Submitted SL – the initial stop-loss value set with the order.
• Current SL – the current stop-loss value.
• Submitted TP – the initial take-profit value set with the order.
• Current TP – the current take-profit value.
• Total deals – the total number of deals attempted to fill the order.
• Rejected deals – the total number of the rejected deals.
• Verified deals – the total number of the accepted deals.
• Exception deals – the total number of deals that have encountered an exception.

Order events¶

The Order events section contains all the events of the order and is displayed to the bottom of the Order information section.

It shows all events related to the order in chronological sequence: creation and modification, matching with liquidity providers, execution of the deal and the created position.

Here you can see how much time has passed between these events.

Click on an event to open the respective panel with all information about the order, deal or position. The following details are presented in the grid:

• Event ID – the unique identifier of the event.
• Event type – the type of the event (order created, order closed, etc.)
• Event status – the current status of the event.
• Time – the exact date and time of the event.
• Expiration time – the exact date and time when the event expires.
• Volume – the exact number of lots involved in the event.
• Price – the current price of the lots involved in the event.
• Stop loss – the stop-loss level.
• Take profit – the take-profit level.
• Session ID – the unique identifier of the session.
• Label – the tag that could be sent with the event.
• Comment – the custom user comment that could be added to the event.
• Client request ID – the unique identifier of the client request.

Stop loss and take profit¶

• Stop loss (SL) - a feature that automatically limits a trader’s losses by closing an open position if the market moves unfavourably. When a security falls to a specified level, the stop loss is triggered and the position is closed at a loss.

• Take profit (TP) - a feature that automatically closes an open position when the market reaches a specified profit level. If the price of a security rises to that target, the position is closed, securing the gain without manual intervention.

cTrader supports two types of protection for stop loss and take profit:

• Relative protection – values are set in pips, relative to the opening price.
• Absolute protection – values are set as exact price levels.

Set up stop loss and take profit¶

You can set up and modify the stop-loss and take-profit protections for the existing positions or pending orders in the Modify order or Modify position menu explained above, or when creating an order in the Create order menu. Check the Stop loss and Take profit boxes to set them.

You can set the trigger value in pips, the symbol price, the balance percentage, the profit value or the distance - all the values will be recalculated automatically relatively to the value you set.

For the pending orders or positions, you can see the distance to the stop-loss and take-profit triggers in pips from the current price of the symbol.

It’s easy to switch the stop-loss trigger from ask to bid price (and vice versa). Click the right arrow icon to change the current trigger:

The right arrow icon is the trade side (default). The stop loss will trigger by the ask price for the sell orders and by the bid price for the buy orders.

The left arrow icon is the opposite side. The stop loss will trigger by the bid price for the sell orders and by the ask price for the buy orders.

The double right arrow icon is the double trade side.

The stop loss will trigger after two consecutive ticks of the ask price above the stop-loss level for the sell orders, and by two consecutive ticks of the bid price below the stop-loss level for buy orders.

The double left arrow icon is the double opposite side.

The stop loss will be triggered by two consecutive ticks of the bid price above the stop-loss level for the sell orders, and by two consecutive ticks of the ask price below the stop-loss level for the buy orders.

Also, the stop loss and take profit can be activated directly in the chart within an open position.

Hover over an open position in the chart, then drag and drop the SL or TP items to set the respective stop-loss and take-profit values.

The stop loss and take profit are active and can trigger even when cTrader is closed or disconnected.