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Chart trading

cTrader allows you to perform various trade actions from a chart. Use on-chart buttons and controls to create and modify orders, positions, stop loss, take profit and price alerts.

Quick Trade

  1. Hover over a price at the top of a chart to display the Quick Trade Buy and Sell buttons, the trade volume field and other chart controls.

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  2. Set your desired trade volume by clicking the up/down arrowheads for small adjustments, typing a value or selecting a preset number from the dropdown.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Click the Buy or Sell button to place a market order, cTrader creates the order immediately, and a corresponding notification appears in the top-right corner.

      Note

      Depending on your Quick Trade configuration in the application settings, you might have to double-click the Buy or Sell button instead, and cTrader may display the new order window rather than send the order.

    • Drag and drop the box onto the chart to place a limit or stop order.

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      Note

      Placing the buy control above the spread creates a stop order, while dropping it inside or below opens a limit order. Putting the sell control below the spread creates a stop order, while setting it inside or above opens a limit order.

Context menu

Alternatively, to create orders directly from a chart, right-click the desired price level.

A point above the ask price provides:

  • Sell limit at price
  • Buy stop at price
  • Buy stop-limit at price

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A point below the bid price provides:

  • Buy limit at price
  • Sell stop at price
  • Sell stop-limit at price

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Choose an order option, and cTrader will place a pending order according to the trade volume in Quick Trade.

Orders

When you place a pending order for a symbol, a badge for the order becomes visible on the corresponding chart. You can drag this badge up or down to set a new price level for the order.

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Click the X icon to cancel the order.

A diamond represents the creation time of a pending order.

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Protections

Chart trading supports server-side protections directly from the chart, including stop loss and multiple take-profit levels for server-side scaling out.

Take profit

Drag the TP control along the price axis to set a take profit for an order.

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After adding one take profit, you can drag the TP control again to set another level, with support for up to five take profits in total.

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Stop loss

Drag the SL control along the price axis to set a stop loss for an order.

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Note

Trailing stop loss and break-even are available only in order windows.

Positions

Similar to pending orders, badges represent open positions on charts. Hovering over a position badge reveals three buttons to the right:

  • Reverse — reverse the position.
  • Double — double the trade volume of the position.
  • Close — close the position.

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Similar to orders, dragging SL along the price axis sets a stop loss for the position, while dragging TP creates one or multiple take profits.

Price alerts

To set a price alert, right-click the desired price level on a chart.

A point above the ask price provides:

  • Set price alert at bid price greater than or equal to current price
  • Set price alert at ask price greater than or equal to current price

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A point below the bid price provides:

  • Set price alert at bid price less than or equal to current price
  • Set price alert at ask price less than or equal to current price

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Select an option, and the price alert appears as a yellow line on the chart by default. You can drag the alert control up or down along the price axis to modify the alert.

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Click the X icon to delete the price alert.