Order Types and Order Book. Ask price, Bid price and Spread
Order Types
PrimeXBT offers several different order types to assist with users’ trading and hedging strategies. This section guides you through the platform and explains how to place and cancel the order.
Main order types: | Protection orders: |
Market order
A Market order is an order to be executed immediately at first available market price. Traders use this order type when they have an urgent execution. Market order is the default choice in order form after you click Buy or Sell. You only need to fill the Amount of asset you are willing to buy or sell.
Please make sure that the form is filled correctly then press ‘Send Order’ to confirm the order.
Limit order
Limit orders are used to specify a maximum or minimum price the trader is willing to buy or sell at. Traders use this order type to improve their entry/exit price, however they do not guarantee execution as there is a chance the market may not reach the limit order level.
Limit order is the second option in ‘Order Type’ drop-down menu.
You need to fill the Amount of asset you are willing to trade as well as the Limit price.
Limit price must always be lower than highest Ask for Buy orders and higher than lowest Bid for Sell orders. Please note that the system will warn you if the order is too high or too low.
To complete the order you have to choose Order Duration. You have two options - GTC (good till cancelled) and Day order (system will show you how many hours remain until the order is cancelled if not executed before).
You can also set up Protection Orders by checking the tick boxes. It will expand the form and allow you to set up Stop Loss price and Take Profit price.
Please make sure that the form is filled correctly then press ‘Send Order’ to confirm the order.
Stop order
A Stop order is an order to buy or sell an asset once the price of the stock reaches a specified price, known as the stop price.
When the stop price is reached, a stop order becomes a market order. Traders use this type of order for two main strategies: As a risk-management tool to limit losses on existing positions, and as an automatic tool to enter the market at a desired entry point without manually waiting for the market to place the order.
A buy stop order is always placed above the market, and a sell stop order is placed below the market.
One-Cancels-Other (OCO) order
An OCO order or One-Cancels-Other, is a conditional order. An OCO order allows you to combine 2 different orders under special conditions - once one of the orders is triggered and executed, the second order is automatically cancelled.
The screenshot above shows an example of an OCO combination of 2 different orders: Buy Stop order + Sell Limit order. If either the Stop or Limit price is reached and an order is executed, the 2nd order automatically gets canceled.
An OCO order allows you to combine different as well as identical order types**:** Stop+Limit, Stop+Stop, Limit+ Limit.
Protection orders: Stop Loss and Take Profit
You can set up additional Protection orders for any new Market, Limit or Stop order by clicking on the box 'Place Stop Loss/Take Profit' in the order form. It will expand the form and allow you to set up Stop Loss price and Take Profit price. Set up order duration – GTC (Good till Cancelled) or Day and you are good to go.
You can also set Protection orders for any existing position by double-clicking the position where you want to add Protection order. This action will bring up the order modification pop up.
You’ll receive a warning if there is anything in the order that could prevent you from setting a Stop Loss. You won’t be able to complete the order until it’s fixed.
Please make sure that the form is filled correctly, then press ‘Modify Position’ to confirm position modification.
The 'Projected Loss' field for Stop Losses reflects the decrease in Open P/L should the price of an asset move from the Current Price to the selected Stop Loss Price.
The 'Projected Loss' field does NOT reflect the overall unrealized P/L of a trade as doing so would result in calculation errors and incorrect Projected loss values being reflected.
Please see our video on how to set Stop Loss and Take Profit.
Order book and order execution
Order Book refers to the stream of quotes offered by our liquidity provider. It includes best Bid and Ask prices, and information about market depth.
Client orders are accepted by PrimeXBT as a service provider and placed to a queue to be executed in the order explained below:
Market orders are placed in the queue for execution upon their acceptance.
Pending orders are placed in the queue for execution when:
For a Limit and Take Profit buy order, the best Ask quote offered by a liquidity provider becomes equal or lower than the order’s limit price
For a Limit and Take Profit sell order, the best Bid quote offered by a liquidity provider becomes equal or higher than the order’s limit price
For a Stop and Stop Loss buy order, the best Ask quote offered by a liquidity provider becomes equal or higher than the order’s stop price
For a Stop and Stop Loss sell order, the best Bid quote offered by a liquidity provider becomes equal or lower than the order’s stop price
Once placed in the queue for execution, an order is executed on the ‘first come first served’ basis and filled with price quotes offered by a liquidity provider at the moment of execution:
Buy orders are filled with Ask quotes offered by a liquidity provider for the given order size
Sell orders are filled with Bid quotes offered by a liquidity provider for the given order size
PrimeXBT Chart candles reflect top-of-the-book Bid quotes offered at the time by our liquidity providers
Bid price, Ask price and Spread
The term Bid and Ask is a two-way price quotation that indicates the best price at which an asset can be sold and bought at a given point in time. Bid price – the best price at which an asset can be SOLD Ask price – the best price at which an asset can be BOUGHT
Spread – the difference between the Bid and Ask prices. Spread is a key indicator of the liquidity of the asset. In general, the smaller the spread, the higher the liquidity. The bid-ask spread can widen dramatically during periods of illiquidity or market turmoil, since traders will not be willing to pay a price beyond a certain threshold, and sellers may not be willing to accept prices below a certain level. Note: Generally, the larger your order, the larger the Spread. The Dashboard widget allows you to check the Bid/Ask prices and current Spread for a particular order size:
PrimeXBT Chart candles reflect top-of-the-book Bid quotes offered at the time by our liquidity providers.
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