Order types in OANDA Asia Pacific

A market order is an order to buy or sell an instrument immediately at the next available price, subject to available liquidity. If buying, the prevailing Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) buy price (or ask) at the time the order has been received will be used for execution. If selling, the prevailing VWAP sell price (or bid) at the time the order has been received will be used for execution. These orders can only be submitted during market hours.

This is useful when speed and certainty of execution are a priority over the price of execution. Market orders can be slipped due to factors such as latency in receiving the order, meaning that the price you saw when you placed the order might have changed by the time your market order is executed by the system. However, you can on some platforms specify bounds to control slippage.

A limit order is an order to buy or sell an instrument at the target price or better. When trading with OANDA, a limit order to buy is an order at a price below the prevailing market price. A limit order to sell is an order at a price above the prevailing market price. Limit orders are triggered based on the prevailing applicable (bid if selling, ask if buying) Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP).

A limit order is useful when you have a target price in mind and want to automatically execute an order when that price is reached. You can also specify an amount of time (or “Time in Force”) you wish the order to be valid for before it automatically expires. Unlike market or stop orders which can potentially be slipped (executed at a worse price than the target price), limit orders can only be either executed at the target price or at a better than target price.

*On the TradingView platform, a limit order to buy set above the market price will be immediately executed at the prevailing rate ask price, rather than being automatically converted to a stop order to buy on the OANDA platforms or be rejected on the MT4 platform. Vice versa, a limit order to sell set below the market price will also be immediately executed at the prevailing rate bid price instead of being converted to a stop order to sell or rejected.

A stop order to buy is an order at a price above the prevailing market price. A stop order to sell is an order at a price below the prevailing market price. Stop orders are triggered based on the prevailing applicable ( bid if selling, ask if buying) Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP).

Like a market order, it is subject to slippage. The fill price of the order can be unfavourable compared to the target price. This occurs when there is a gap in the price, e.g. on market open or during volatile market conditions. However, you can on some platforms specify bounds to control slippage. You can also specify an amount of time (or “Time in Force”) you wish the order to be valid for before it automatically expires.

A stop order is useful when a strategy uses momentum or breakouts, where you might look for a confirmation of a price move in a particular direction before entering the market, even though you will be trading at a less favourable price compared to the current market price.

An “Entry OrderAn instruction to buy or sell an instrument when its price reaches a predetermined level.” is available only on the downloadable OANDA Desktop platform or Android & iOS platforms. It will behave either like stop order or limit order depending on where you place the entry order relative to the prevailing market price.

If you are requesting a more favourable price than the prevailing market price (below the prevailing market price if buying or above if selling), then the entry order will behave like a limit order, where the order will fill at the target price or better.

If you are requesting a less favourable price than the prevailing market price (above the market if buying or below if selling), then the entry order will behave like a stop order, where the order could be subject to slippage.

When using an entry order, use extra caution when placing it close to the prevailing market price as the behaviour of the order can change as prices may move rapidly.

OCO/OCA or “One Cancels Another” is available on MT4 with the OANDA Premium upgrade installed, as well as on selected third-party platforms. This conditional order type allows you to automatically cancel an entry order if another entry order executes.

This can be useful when trading a breakout strategy for example, where you might want to enter the market if the price action breaks out of a range one way or another, but you are not yet sure of the direction of the breakout. For example, you could place a stop order to sell below a key support level together with a stop order to buy above a key resistance level. If the market then moved lower past the support level, your stop order to sell would execute, while your stop order to buy would be cancelled upon the execution of your stop order to sell.

A Stop-Limit orderAn instruction to buy or sell an instrument at a specific price or better combines the functionality of a stop order with that of a limit order, with a target price for both the stop and limit prices. Once the stop price is triggered, a limit order will be submitted at the target limit order price.

This can be useful when a strategy uses momentum or breakouts, where you might look for a confirmation of a price move in a particular direction before entering the market, even though you will be trading at a less favourable price compared to the current market price. By submitting a limit order once the stop is triggered, you can also take advantage of the fact that the limit order will not be subject to slippage.

For example, you could place a stop-limit to buy with the stop price set above the current market price, with a limit order at the same price as the stop price. If the stop price was triggered, then the limit order will be submitted to be filled at the target limit order price or better. This has the advantage of being secure against slippage, but the disadvantage that the limit order may never get filled as the market price may not hit the limit order target price after it has been received.

This order will close an open trade if the price of an instrument moves in a direction favourable to you. The order will close a trade if the applicable (sell price if holding a buy trade, buy price if holding a sell trade) market Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) reaches the target price or better. A take profit can only be attached to an open trade or pending order to open a trade.

It is like a limit order to exit a trade. A take profit can be useful for automatically locking in profits, rather than manually monitoring the market.

This order will close an open trade if prices of an instrument move in a direction unfavourable to you. The order will close a trade if the applicable (sell price if holding a buy trade, buy price if holding a sell trade) market Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) reaches the target price. They can be slipped such that the execution price is less favourable than the target price. A stop loss can only be attached to an open trade or pending order to open a trade.Stop loss orders provide margin relief when attached to an open trade, reducing the margin requirement to the amount of capital at risk in the trade, plus 30% of the standard margin requirement and any fees.

It is like a stop order to exit a trade. A stop loss can be useful for automatically limiting losses, rather than manually monitoring the market.

This order will close an open trade (like a stop loss order) if prices of an instrument move in an unfavourable direction, but the target price of a trailing stop can move with favourable price movements by a set distance.

The set distance of a trailing stop loss order can either be set as a number of pips away from the prevailing market price (or entry price if attached to a pending limit or stop), or as a price level. If it is set as a price level, then the difference between the market price at the time of execution and the target price level will be used as the distance the trailing stop loss order follows favourable prevailing market price moves. In other words, the trailing stop loss will always be at most the distance you set away from the current market price.

For example, if you enter a buy position on EUR/USD from 1.15000 and you set a trailing stop to be 50 pips away from the market price (1.14500). If the price immediately falls by 50 pips to 1.14500, then the trailing stop loss would be executed, resulting in a loss of 50 pips. Alternatively, if the price initially rose by 100 pips to 1.16000, then the trailing stop loss would move upwards to 1.15500- trailing the favourable price move by 50 pips. If the price then retraced downwards by 50 pips to 1.15500 after the move higher, the trailing stop loss would trigger, but netting a profit of 50 pips on the trade from 1.15000 to 1.15500 (assuming no slippage took place).

The order will close a trade if the applicable (sell price if holding a buy trade, buy price if holding a sell trade) market Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) reaches the target price. They can be slipped such that the execution price is less favourable than the target price.

Like a standard stop loss, trailing stop losses can only be attached to an open trade or pending order to enter a trade.

Trailing stop loss orders provide margin relief when attached to an open trade, reducing the margin requirement to the amount of capital at risk in the trade, plus 30% of the standard margin and any fees.

Trailing stops are useful when trading a trend, allowing a trader to automatically lock in profits as the stop trails behind favourable price moves.

Like a stop loss order, this order will close an open trade if prices of an instrument move in an unfavourable direction. However, GSLOs are not subject to slippage and the target price of the order will be the same as the fill price if triggered. In addition to this, a guaranteed stop loss order will incur a premium if the GSLO is triggered. The order will close a trade if the applicable (sell price if holding a buy trade, buy price if holding a sell trade) market Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) reaches the target price. A guaranteed stop loss can only be attached to an open trade or pending order to open a trade.

Guaranteed stop loss orders provide margin relief when attached to an open trade, reducing the margin requirement to the amount of capital at risk in the trade, plus 10% of the standard margin and any fees.

For detailed information on the restrictions and limitations of a GSLO, please view our GSLO FAQ.

Upper and Lower bounds are instructions which can be added to market, stop and entry orders. Upper and lower bounds could prevent or limit the slippage that could occur on these order types. They will automatically cancel the order should the amount of slippage upon execution be greater than a tolerance you specify in either price or number of pips.

Slippage - Slippage is where the executed price of an order does not match the target price of the order, and this can occur when the market moves quicker than the time it takes to process the order, or when there is gapping in the market.

Gapping - Gapping is where prices move from one price to another without trading in between them. This can occur when there is a break in trading, for example on market open, or in extremely volatile conditions.

Synthetic order - A synthetic order is an order which is not held & monitored for trigger conditions by OANDA but is created to simulate a desired functionality and monitored locally. For example, in the case of a trailing stop order on MT4, the client terminal does not send a trailing order to OANDA. The MT4 client terminal monitors the conditions of the order and will submit new stop loss instructions to OANDA when the stop price needs to be changed.

VWAP - A VWAP is a “Volume Weighted Average Price”. It is used to calculate an execution (and trigger) price when the requested quantity of an order is greater than the amount available at the level 1 or top of book price. You can view the amount currently available at the level 1 price by opening the depth of market for an instrument on an order ticket. Link out to depth of market FAQ

BidThe prevailing buy price. - The Bid price is the price at which orders to sell will be executed against. These are always on the left side of an order ticket, and in normal trading conditions are lower than the ask price

AskThe prevailing sell price. - The ask price is the price at which orders to buy will be executed against. These are always on the right side of an order ticket, and in normal trading conditions are higher than the bid price

Trigger price - The price at which the condition of an order is triggered at for execution

Fill price – The price at which the order receives upon execution.

Long - A long position is position in which the holder is a buyer

Short - A short position is a position in which the holder is a seller

MarginThe required collateral to open and maintain a leveraged position. relief – Margin relief is where the amount of margin required to hold an open trade is reduced by the open trade having a stop loss, trailing stop loss or guaranteed stop loss attached to it.