Sunday, March 16, 2008

Orders - Stops and Limits

As in other financial markets, one can enter the foreign exchange markets at the market or deal rate (this is often known as a Market Order) or at a future rate this is known as a Stop (often known as a Stop Loss) or Limit Order. However as opposed to other financial markets, placing orders in the FX market is much easier, gives far better results and has many more opportunities and variations on the order placed.
When you wish to enter into a trade at current market conditions one simply executes a buy or a sell market order. Often a trader may wish to either limit the loss of the position that he has open (in which case he is able to set a stop order) or he may wish to enter a trade but at a rate that is more attractive then the current market (in which case he can place a limit order).
As discussed above, a stop order can be placed on an existing open position to limit the possible loss on the open trade. For instance say if a trader is long 100,000 EUR/USD at 1.2820, he is obviously expecting that the EUR/USD rate will rise where he will be able to get out at a profit. However the trader may wish to limit the loss that he is willing to take on the trade. If the maximum loss the trader is willing to take is $1,000 and he knows that every pip is worth $10 in this case, calculated by 100,000 EUR*0.0001= $10, then he will want to set his stop order 100 pips from his execution price in this case 1.2720. At 1.2720 the client will lose $1,000 if it is not closed earlier and the AVA platform will execute the order if and when the Bid (since in this case the stop order is a sell order) reaches the stop rate of 1.2720.

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