Instant Execution Trades in Metatrader

This is just a brief guide to how to place instant execution trades in Metatrader – for new traders who have never before placed a manual trade.

Instant Execution is just what it sounds like, a trade which is placed immediately into the market. It tells the broker “I want to buy (or sell) and I want to do it now”.  Here is how to open a trade:-

Click on the “new order” button in your metatrader toolbar (or press F9, or right click on a chart and go to trade—>new order). This will bring up a screen looking like this:-

On the left of the order screen you will see a ‘tick’ chart. This is showing you the tick by tick movements in the market for both the buy and sell quotes (the difference between the two being the ’spread’).

You will need to fill in and check all the boxes. Most are self explanatory for instant execution orders, however the definitions of each are listed below:-

Symbol – Check that you have selected the correct currency pair which you want to trade on.

Volume – This is the size you wish to trade at. Discussing trade sizes is beyond the scope of this article, however, it is worth noting that the size you trade at will depend on the strategy you are using, the stoploss you wish to use, and the size of your account. I would suggest as a very rough ‘demo-only’ guide to use 0.01 lots for any accounts less than $500, 0.1 lots for any accounts between $500 and $2000, and for larger accounts roughly 0.1 lots for every $1000 to $2000.

Stoploss and Take Profit – Enter the values you wish to use for stoploss and take profit if you have them. It is not essential to fill this in although it is recommended!

Comment – Optional box to write any personal notes you wish to appear on your statement, for instance you might want to tag this trade as being “strategy A”.

Type – Instant Execution or Pending Order. We are dealing with Instant Execution here as we want our trade to be placed NOW. Pending Orders are for trades placed later.

Sell / Buy Buttons – Click blue buy button to buy, and red sell button to sell – as simple as that! You can see the current price quotes right above the buttons in big bold type.

Enable maximum deviation from quoted price – If you select this it simply allows the broker to accept your trade even if price in the market shifts slightly from the time you hit “buy” (or “sell”) to the time it reaches their servers. You can select in “maximum deviation” exactly how many pips different from the entry price you are willing to accept. Most auto-traders will be familiar with this function and it is called “slippage” in most EA settings. When I trade I usually try to enter without any such slippage and therefore leave this box unticked. If the market does shift I then get a rejection message back from the broker if my trade cannot be placed. If you trade frequently in very fast markets (e.g. if you like trading news events) then you may find it essential to tick this to allow for the movement.

Once you have filled in your order box and you are sure everything is correct, just go ahead and click on your button to buy or sell. You will get a popup box confirming your order has been entered successfully and you should now see your new trade in the bottom of your metatrader. Note that all new trades will show an immediate loss due to the spread, unless you are lucky enough to have entered in a fast moving market in your favour!

Tip For Making Quicker Entries

If you just want to get into your trade immediately and don’t have time to mess around entering your stoploss and take profit values, then don’t. Just bring up the order screen, check it over quickly and hit buy or sell. You can go into your trade later and edit it and adjust for the stoploss and take profit values.

Closing Or Editing A Trade

To close a trade, simply right click on it in your Metatrader and select “Close Order”.

To modify your stoploss and take profit values, right click on the trade and select “Modify Order”. You should now see this screen:-

If you know your exact stoploss and take profit values, then you should type them in the stoploss and take profit boxes (or use the arrows in the boxes to scroll up or down to your values).

If you do not know your exact stoploss and take profit values then you can tell metatrader to place the stoploss or take profit a set number of points away from current market price. Select this in the “level” dropdown box. Note that a lot of brokers will not allow you to place your stops and take profits within 10 (or sometimes 5) pips of current market price. One further point to note is that when you select a “level” of 10 points this does NOT necessarily mean 10 pips, it means 10 points (movements of your brokers price). For 5 digit brokers therefore if you select 10 points it actually means 1 pip! (4 digit brokers 10 points would be 10 pips).