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Orders are placed from a trading account. On a desktop the ticket sits beside the chart; on a phone it slides up as a sheet once you pick a direction.

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Pick an instrument

The search finds an instrument by name or symbol. Favourites keep the ones you trade at the top, and Hide markets that are closed removes the ones not quoting right now. The chart draws your levels: the stop loss, the take profit, the limit of a waiting order, and the liquidation price of an open position.

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Direction and size

Buy opens a long, Sell a short. An instrument is sized in one of two ways, and the ticket says which:
  • In lots. One lot is a fixed quantity of the asset: 100,000 units of the base currency on a currency pair, 100 shares on a stock (from a hundredth of a lot, so one share), 100 ounces on gold, 1,000 barrels on oil, 1 BTC on BTC/USD. The ticket writes the notional (lots times what one lot is worth at today’s price) and the pip value. The order opens at the leverage you set for the instrument’s class.
  • By amount and leverage. Most crypto coins trade this way, a few ETFs, and every index but SPX500 and NAS100. The amount you enter is the margin, and the leverage dialog sets how large a position it opens: a higher leverage opens a larger position with the same amount, and brings the liquidation price closer to the entry. The dialog shows the range the instrument allows.
A size below the instrument’s minimum, or above its maximum, is refused before the order is sent.

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Order type

A waiting order holds no margin until it fills; it is checked against your free margin when placed, and again at the fill. A waiting order carries an expiration: GTC (good till cancelled), today, or a day and time you specify. An expired order is removed and nothing is executed.

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Slippage

A market order names the most slippage you accept. The price can move between the ticket and the fill; beyond that distance the order is refused rather than filled worse, and nothing is taken.

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Stop loss and take profit

Both are optional, and each can be written in the unit you prefer:
  • a price,
  • a distance in points, on a market traded in lots,
  • a risk, as a share of the balance, which sets the size of the order from the distance to the stop.
The ticket writes the risk-to-reward of the two levels. A stop loss placed beyond the liquidation price does not protect you: the position is liquidated first, and the ticket says so. A trailing stop, in points, moves the stop loss with the price once the profit reaches the distance you set, and never moves it back. The levels of an open position can be changed or removed from its row.
A stop loss is not a guaranteed price. On a gap, at a market’s reopening for instance, the position closes at the first price past the level, not at the level.

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The summary before you confirm

Before an order leaves, the ticket writes:
  • the fee, the commission charged at the open, in the account’s currency,
  • the spread quoted on the instrument, half of which you pay on each side,
  • the required margin, from the instrument’s own margin terms, and the free margin before and after the order,
  • the liquidation price of the position the order would open,
  • the swap terms, what a night held will cost or pay.
The confirmation step can be turned off in the settings. Every figure stays on the position’s row and in its details.

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After the order

A notice confirms a fill, a resting order, a trigger, a cancellation or an expiry. A refused order takes nothing: no margin is held and nothing is executed. The reasons an order is refused:
  • the leverage is outside the range the instrument allows,
  • the account does not have enough free margin,
  • the margin is below the minimum for an order,
  • the spread is wider than the order allows, which happens around a market’s close,
  • there is no fresh price for the instrument right now,
  • your account leverage changed since the ticket was priced: check it and place the order again.

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Managing a position

From a position’s row you can change its stop loss and take profit, close part of it or all of it, and share its result. A partial close takes a volume or a share of the position; at least the instrument’s minimum size has to stay open, or you close the whole position. The history writes what closed each position: by hand, a take profit, a stop loss, a liquidation or a stop-out. A waiting order can be cancelled from its row; once cancelled, it will not fill.