Know your order types
| Order | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Fills now at the best available price | Speed matters more than the exact price |
| Buy limit | Buys below the current price | You want to buy a pullback to a level |
| Sell limit | Sells above the current price | You want to sell a rally to a level |
| Buy stop | Buys above the current price | You want to buy a breakout |
| Sell stop | Sells below the current price | You want to sell a breakdown |
Pending orders let the market come to you. They also stop you from chasing a price that has already left.
Spread and slippage
The spread is the gap between the buy and sell price, and you pay it on every trade. Slippage is the difference between the price you asked for and the price you got. Both get worse at predictable times:
- Around the daily rollover, 5 pm New York time (2:30 am IST in summer, 3:30 am in winter).
- In the first minutes after major US data such as NFP and CPI.
- At the weekly open on Monday morning.
If your setup appears at one of these times, wait for spreads to settle or skip it. A wide spread can move your break-even several pips away before the trade has started.
Place the stop and target with the order
In MT5, set the stop loss and take profit in the order window before you send it. A trade that is live for even a minute without a stop is exposed to a spike you can't control, and adding the stop later invites second thoughts about where to put it.
Why traders hesitate, and how to fix it
Many traders see their setup, freeze and enter late, or not at all, then watch the trade work without them. Hesitation usually comes from one of three places:
- Size is too big. The possible loss feels too large to accept. Reduce risk until entering feels routine.
- The setup isn't clearly defined. If you're not sure it qualifies, you'll wait for more proof. Write the exact conditions down.
- Recent losses. After a losing run, every trade feels like the next loss. Stick to fixed risk and treat each trade as one of the next 100.
An execution routine
- Alert fires at your level.
- Check the setup against your written conditions.
- Check news and spread.
- Calculate lot size from the stop, and margin on a funded account.
- Place the order with stop and target attached.
- Screenshot the chart for your journal.
With practice this takes under a minute, which is fast enough for most setups on the 15-minute chart and above.
Track execution quality
In your journal, record the price you planned and the price you got. If the gap is regularly more than a pip or two on majors, look at the times you trade and the order types you use.