Forex Order Types Explained: Market, Limit, Stop and Stop-Limit

Short answer: A market order fills straight away at the current price. A pending order waits until the price reaches a level you chose. There are four pending types: buy limit, sell limit, buy stop and sell stop. A stop loss and a take profit attach to a trade and close it at a set price.

The order types in this article, October 2026. Prices in the examples are illustrative.

Market orders

A market order says “buy or sell now”. You get the best available price at that moment. On a quote of 1.0850 / 1.0852 (bid / ask), a buy fills near 1.0852 and a sell near 1.0850. The gap between the two is the spread.

Market orders are the simplest. The trade is that the fill price can differ from the price on your screen, especially in fast markets. That difference is slippage.

Pending orders: limit and stop

A pending order is an instruction to open a trade later, if the price gets to a level. Every pending order is either a limit or a stop. The one question that sorts them: is your level on the better side or the worse side of the current price?

Order	Where the level sits	Triggers when	Typical use
Buy limit	Below the current price	Price falls to the level	Buy a dip or a support area
Sell limit	Above the current price	Price rises to the level	Sell a rally or a resistance area
Buy stop	Above the current price	Price rises to the level	Buy a breakout
Sell stop	Below the current price	Price falls to the level	Sell a breakdown

Example: EUR/USD trades at 1.0850. A buy limit at 1.0800 fills only if the price drops 50 pips. A buy stop at 1.0900 fills only if the price climbs 50 pips. Both buy, but one waits for a pullback and the other waits for strength. A platform will normally reject a pending order placed on the wrong side of the market, for example a buy limit above the current price.

Brokers also set a minimum distance between the market price and a pending order. The figure is in the contract specifications of your account.

All six orders on one price

EUR/USD is trading at 1.0850 and you hold no position. Here is where each order would sit and what happens if the price touches your level.

Order	Level	Fires when price…	Becomes
Buy limit	1.0800	falls 50 pips	Market buy at 1.0800 or better
Sell limit	1.0900	rises 50 pips	Market sell at 1.0900 or better
Buy stop	1.0900	rises 50 pips	Market buy at the next price
Sell stop	1.0800	falls 50 pips	Market sell at the next price
Buy stop-limit	stop 1.0900, limit 1.0910	reaches 1.0900	Buy limit at 1.0910
Sell stop-limit	stop 1.0800, limit 1.0790	reaches 1.0800	Sell limit at 1.0790

The MetaTrader 5 help lists six pending types: Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop, Sell Stop, Buy Stop Limit and Sell Stop Limit, and says a stop-limit is used to “place a stop-style order while limiting slippage” (source). We have not confirmed which of these your broker enables, so check your platform.

How long a pending order lasts

A pending order sits on the server until it fills, expires or you remove it. MetaTrader 5 lets you set the expiry: Good Till Canceled, Today, or a specified date (source). A forgotten order can fill days later at a price you no longer want, so set an expiry when your idea has a time limit, and review open pending orders on Monday morning after a weekend.

Step by step: placing a pending order

1. Decide the idea: pullback or breakout.
2. Pick the side of the price: below for buy limit or sell stop, above for sell limit or buy stop.
3. Set the stop loss and take profit distances in pips before sending, using the pip calculator for money.
4. Choose the expiry.
5. Check the size with the lot size calculator.
6. After it fills, confirm the stop loss attached.

Stop loss and take profit

These two orders attach to an open trade. Neither opens a position.

• Stop loss: closes the trade at a worse price than your entry, to cap the loss.
• Take profit: closes the trade at a better price than your entry, to bank the gain.

Worked example. You buy 0.1 lot of EUR/USD at 1.0852 with a stop loss at 1.0822 and a take profit at 1.0912.

• Risk: 30 pips, about $30 at 0.1 lot ($1 per pip).
• Target: 60 pips, about $60.
• Reward-to-risk: 2:1, before spread and commission.

The pip calculator gives the pip value for other pairs and lot sizes, and the lot size calculator works backwards from the money you are willing to lose. Our page on the stop loss covers where to place one.

Stop-limit orders

A stop-limit order has two prices: a stop price that activates the order and a limit price that caps what you will pay. The stop limit price is that second figure: the worst fill you accept once the stop has triggered. Buy stop-limit with stop 1.0900 and limit 1.0910: once the price touches 1.0900, the order becomes a buy limit at 1.0910. It will not fill above 1.0910.

The catch is that it may not fill at all. If the market jumps from 1.0899 to 1.0925, your limit is already behind the price and the order sits unfilled while the move runs. A plain stop would have filled, at a worse price. Stop-limit orders are not available on every platform, so check before you plan around one.

Trailing stops

A trailing stop moves your stop loss behind the price by a fixed distance as the trade gains, and never moves back. If you buy at 1.0852 with a 30-pip trail, the stop starts at 1.0822. When the price reaches 1.0900, the stop sits at 1.0870. If the price then falls 30 pips, the trade closes at 1.0870.

On MetaTrader a trailing stop is run by the platform, so it only updates while the terminal is connected. Close the terminal and the stop stays where it last was. Check how your own platform handles this.

What happens when the price gaps

Stops are not guaranteed prices. A stop loss turns into a market order once triggered, and a market order fills at whatever is available. Around news releases on the economic calendar and at the weekly open, the price can gap past your level, and the fill is worse than the one you set. The same applies to a buy stop or sell stop. A limit order does the opposite: it will fill at your price or better, or not at all.

If a broker offers guaranteed stops, they are usually a separate feature with a cost and conditions. Read the terms before relying on one.

Choosing an order type

• Want in now and accept the current price: market order.
• Have a price level in mind from the chart and cannot watch the screen: pending order.
• Waiting for a pullback: buy limit or sell limit.
• Waiting for the price to confirm a move: buy stop or sell stop.
• Every open trade: a stop loss, set before you click.
• Want to offset an open trade without closing it: an opposite position, known as hedging, where your broker allows it.

Beginners often place the stop loss only “in their head”. If the price moves while you sleep, nothing closes the trade. Put the order on the platform.

Bottom line

Market orders fill now and pending orders wait. Limit orders get you a better price or nothing, and stop orders get you a fill after the move has started, at a price you cannot fully control. Attach a stop loss to every trade and size it using the money you can lose, not the margin you have. Only deposit money you can afford to lose. CFDs are complex, high-risk instruments.