There are 2 kinds of conditional order you can place with currency exchange trades : the stop loss ( sometimes written stop / loss ) and the limit order. We call these conditional orders because they won’t come into effect unless specific circumstances are met.
The stop loss is a well-known order that controls the chance concerned in a trade. With a stop loss, you are saying to the broker, “If the price goes this far against me, I need out. ” So if you have bought a currency pair in hope of an increase in price, but then the price falls, you won’t see your entire account balance wiped out. The stop loss will kick in and protect the bulk of your funds.
A limit order is comparable but is applicable to the opposite situation, the situation where you have a winning trade. With a limit order, you say to the broker, “If the price reaches this level, that is’s enough, I may close there and take it. ” The limit order will be caused if your pre arranged price is reached and the trade will be closed at that cost.
Many traders are disinclined to use limit orders when they first start out. It appears counter intuitive. If the market is going your way, why would you like to shut the trade? Would you not want to hold on as long as possible to get the maximum profit out of it?
The difficulty with that approach is that sooner or later the price will reverse, and regularly it does it sooner instead of later . If you do not place a limit order, when will you close the trade? How will you know when it has gone so far as it is going? If you wait too long, a sudden reversal could see your profits wiped out.
So unless you’ve a system that is set up with really precise criteria to tell you when to close a trade, you may possibly be better off if you use limit orders.